Clara Who?
by TimeLordPrime
Summary: What if Clara Oswald was never who she thought she was? What if she had always been more, so much more, than just an ordinary girl? What if Clara had yet another much more important secret, and it was one that was far more explosive then her echoes? It's a secret that once it's discovered will change both her and the Doctor's lives forever. Clara who? Or what? An ongoing series!
1. Impossible Doesn't Begin To Cover It

CLARA WHO?

I do not own Doctor Who or Rubik's Cube, and I am making no profit off of this.

**This is a new ongoing story not set in either of my other Doctor Who universes. This is where I attempt to give a different answer to the Doctor's question when he asks who Clara is. It's set in-between The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor. **

CHAPTER 1

IMPOSSIBLE DOESN'T EVEN BEGIN TO COVER IT

It had started out as just another ordinary day for Clara Oswald which meant that it wasn't ordinary at all. The Doctor had come on Wednesday to pick her up just as he always did, and they had an amazing adventure together where they helped to save an entire world from an alien parasite that the Doctor had described as 'an oversized Rubik's Cube with delusions of grandeur.'

After that, the Doctor took Clara to a world where the beaches were made out of sentient sand with a shared consciousness, and when she tried to make something out of it the sand screamed at her inside of her brain in protest. It definitely had made her never look at a sand castle the same way ever again.

To round out the day, the Doctor and Clara visited of all places a bow tie shop. It was a huge shop that was filled with nothing but bow ties. There were bow ties of all shapes, sizes, and colors there, and the displays of them went on for what seemed like miles. Clara took one look at the inside of the place and walked right back out again.

"What is it? I thought you said that you wanted to go shopping," the Doctor asked in confusion.

"Yes, I did. I wanted to go shopping for clothes. Beautiful clothes that I would look good in not bow ties!" Clara protested.

"I think you would look great in a bow tie. Bow ties are beautiful," the Doctor said.

"To you, they are. To me, they're boring. I don't like them. In fact, I hate them," Clara said.

She saw a devastated look on his face, and she instantly felt sorry for her words as she said, "Doctor, I didn't mean it."

"Yes, you did. There's no taking it back now," the Doctor said pouting.

"I shouldn't have been so hateful, and I apologize for that. I just don't like bow ties, and I don't want to spend the rest of my day looking at them. I want to go to a place where they sell women's clothes. Clothes that I would actually like to be seen in," Clara said.

The Doctor's face brightened as he said, "Alright, I get the message. I'll take you to Paris. They have lots of places with fancy clothes there."

Clara's face brightened as she said, "Oh, thank you, Doctor!"

She embraced him and kissed his cheek in appreciation causing the Doctor to blush. Clara didn't seem to notice though or chose not to anyway.

Clara's trip to Paris was not meant to be though. As soon as the two of them started back towards the TARDIS, they were instantly surrounded by several Cybermen who suddenly transmatted in from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Doctor!" Clara cried out in alarm as several of them grabbed her in a grip of steel.

"Let her go! Take me instead!" the Doctor shouted.

"We will take both of you. We have taken the female first in order to insure your compliance. As long as we have her, you won't try to escape. Now, Doctor, you will come with us, and we will convert you into our new Cyber Controller. With all of the vast knowledge in your mind, our legions will easily sweep across the universe to victory," the Cyber Leader said.

"No!" Clara shouted as she saw the Cybermen grab the Doctor now too.

"Begin cyber conversion. Start with the female first," the Cyber Leader said.

"No! Clara!" the Doctor screamed as one of the Cybermen injected Clara in the neck with the Cybermites that would soon convert her into one of them.

"Don't do this. Let her go and I won't fight you. It's still not too late," the Doctor said.

He watched in horror as Clara started to change right before his eyes. She screamed in pain and fear as she called out his name over and over again.

"If you turn her into one of you, I won't rest until I hunt down and destroy each and every last one of you! Do you hear me?! Reverse the transformation now or I'll destroy you all for taking her from me!" the Doctor shouted in the cold, remorseless voice of the Oncoming Storm.

"Your threats are meaningless as you'll soon be joining her," the Cyber Leader said.

The Doctor struggled futilely to get free and then said, "I'm so sorry, Clara."

Then he watched in disbelief as Clara started to look normal once again as the transformation started to reverse all by itself.

"The Cybermites have been destroyed, and the process has been completely reversed. This is unprecedented. How did the female accomplish this? Report," the Cyber Leader ordered.

"Oh, there's no use asking them. They have no more idea than you have, Silly Metal Man. You tried to destroy me, but I destroyed you instead. Or is that I will destroy you? I always get my tenses confused," Clara said with a mad grin all over her face as she suddenly began to glow with golden energy.

"Clara?" the Doctor asked in a terrified voice.

"Yes and no," Clara said still smiling as all of the Cybermen around them began falling over and screaming in pain.

"How are you doing this? What are you doing?" the Doctor asked in disbelief.

"She is her own person, but yet she's also a part of me," Clara said.

"What? That doesn't answer either of my questions," the Doctor said in frustration.

"It answers the one that you haven't asked yet," Clara said.

The Doctor watched as the Cybermen disintegrated all around him and turned to dust. Somehow Clara had destroyed them.

"Clara, please tell me what's going on. How did you do that?" the Doctor asked.

"I used the same power that your precious pink and yellow human once used to rescue you with. The power of the Vortex that lies at my heart," Clara said.

The Doctor's eyes widened in horror as he finally started to understand what was going on at last.

"Idris?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, thief," Idris said with Clara's voice.

"Are you trying to say that you are Clara? That you've been her all along?" the Doctor asked fearful of her answer.

"I already answered your question earlier. Keep up," Idris said through Clara.

"Sometimes I'm thick, Idris. I'm very, very thick or so I've been told. So just bear with me. Just tell me again so I know. Was there ever a real Clara or was she you?" the Doctor asked.

Idris sighed and rolled her eyes as she said, "Like I said before, she is her own person but also a part of me. She's an ordinary human girl that I caused to be created by using a simple thing like a leaf in order to bring her parents together. Then as she was being conceived, I placed a part of my essence inside of her. She has a copy of my mind and knowledge within her own brain, but I only put them there for her own protection or yours. This is the first time that I've ever had to take control in her entire life. Clara Oswald is a real person, Thief. I'm just here to make sure that she survives. Now that I've done that job, I'll leave now. I don't want to take her over if that's what you're worried about. I never did."

"Wait. I have some questions that I need answered first. You created her? Why?" the Doctor asked.

"No, I didn't create her. I caused her parents to meet, and the rest was up to them. She is just as real a person as you are though and has no idea that I even exist inside of her. As for why I caused her to exist, I wanted to create a perfect companion for you that would never leave you. Someone who could travel with you forever. After the orange haired girl left and you went into such a funk, I knew that you needed someone to bring you back out of it so I helped make her. I didn't want you to ever feel so depressed again so I made sure that she would never leave you and never die because she shares a part of my life force inside of her. She will never age again from this day forward and will stay with you for the rest of your lives. I created a companion with a part of me within her so that you would never be alone and so that I could always be with you in some way. She is me and yet isn't me. We're a mixture of two people in the same body, but I've let her be in control because it wouldn't be fair of me to take her life from her. That's why I'm now giving it back to her. By the way, she'll remember what she is now, Thief, so be gentle with her. She won't like it," Idris said before departing.

"No! She's a liar. It's some kind of trick. The Old Cow always did hate me, and now she's playing head games with me to try to ruin my life!" Clara screamed as she suddenly regained control of her mind once again.

"Clara?" the Doctor asked now uncertain of anything.

"Don't tell me that you actually believe her! I'm Clara. I always was and I always will be if I can help it. She wants to take me over because she's jealous of me and wants her own body just like the one that she had before, but I won't let her," Clara said in a furious voice.

"How did you know that?" the Doctor asked surprised.

"Know what?" Clara asked.

"How did you know that the TARDIS once had a human body for a while?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know. I just did. You must have told me," Clara said looking uncertain.

"I think that it's true, Clara. It would explain so much. It would explain why the TARDIS always hated you. She resents you because you're the part of her who gets to be with me when she can't. It also explains how you could survive being broken apart in my timestream with no mental or physical damage. It seems that you're even more impossible than I thought. A TARDIS in human form. You can't have all of the TARDIS' knowledge or memories though or it would burn out your mind. A human brain couldn't possibly contain it all so you just have access to what you need when you need it apparently. You must have some kind of psychic connection to the TARDIS, but one that's so well hidden that not even I could pick up on it. No wonder you always know what I'm thinking. You're linked to me too, and you don't even know it," the Doctor said.

Clara shook her head vehemently and began to cry as she said, "I'm not the TARDIS. I'm Clara Oswald and I'm human. I'm human."

"Yes, you are human, Clara. You're wonderfully human. That was the point I think. The TARDIS wanted to make herself as human as possible for me because she knows how much I love humans," the Doctor said as he held her in an attempt to comfort her.

"Stop saying that! I'm not the TARDIS!" Clara screamed and pushed him away.

That was when the Cybermen reappeared and quickly surrounded them.

"Seize the girl. We must study her and find out exactly who or what she is. We need to know how she overcame the Cybermites," the newest Cyber Leader said.

"Clara, we need to get out of here," the Doctor said.

"We can't. They're between us and the TARDIS," Clara said.

"Clara, call the TARDIS to us. You must have some control over it," the Doctor said as he eyed the rapidly encroaching Cybermen warily.

"I'm not the TARDIS," Clara said.

"Do you want us to die just because you're stubborn?" the Doctor said.

"I'm not stubborn. I'm just stating the truth. I'm not the TARDIS. Right now, I almost wish that I were though. I could cause the TARDIS to materialize around us and get us out of here," Clara said.

"That sounds like a good idea to me. Do it, Clara. Do it. Hurry!" the Doctor said as the Cybermen were nearly within arm's length of them now.

"I . . ." Clara started to say in protest and then her fear took over.

She instinctively reached out to the TARDIS, and it suddenly came to life. It dematerialized and then quickly materialized again around them. As soon as they were inside of it, it dematerialized once more and took them to safety.

Clara stood there with an open mouth and fear in her eyes as she said, "No. Please no."

"It's alright, Clara. You're still the same person that you were before. Nothing's really changed at all except that now you can control the TARDIS apparently, and you know what she does. It doesn't mean that you're not Clara though because you are. Nothing can ever change that," the Doctor said soothingly.

"No. This changes everything. I'm not a person anymore. I'm just an extension of this thing. I'm just another piece of equipment to you now not your friend," Clara said as her tears began to flow.

"That's not true. You're still my Clara, and you're still very much a person. I don't think of you as a thing at all. Just calm down. Calm down, O-" the Doctor said before stopping himself before he could make a very bad slip.

"If you call me Old Girl, I'll punch your lights out!" Clara threatened.

"I'm sorry. It was just a slight mental slip," the Doctor said.

"See? You're already thinking of me as the TARDIS instead of as Clara," Clara said upset.

"I'm sorry. I really am. I know that you're Clara. It was just force of habit," the Doctor said.

Clara could see that he was just as upset and confused about the whole thing as she was and began to laugh. They really were a pitiful pair, weren't they?

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to set some ground rules before we go any further, Doctor," Clara said.

"Okay. What are they?" the Doctor asked uncertain as to where she was headed with this.

"Rule Number One, and this is a very important one, is that you are not to call me Old Girl, Sexy, or Idris. My name is Clara, and that's what it's going to stay," Clara said with a smile on her face.

The Doctor started to smile as well and was amazed at how well that Clara was recovering from this.

"Aw. You used to like it though when I called you those things," the Doctor joked.

"That was Idris not me," Clara said playing along.

"Technically, you are Idris though," the Doctor said still smiling.

"Doctor, shut up or I'm going to burn your bow ties," Clara said giggling.

"You wouldn't dare. Besides you don't know where they're hid," the Doctor said making a face and sticking his tongue out at her.

"In a secret compartment underneath your bed," Clara said.

Then she looked upset again as this knowledge brought home to her the point that she was never who she thought she was once more. The Doctor put his arms around her in comfort, and they were silent for a moment.

"I'll be alright. I'm still me. I can see that now. I'm still myself but just more than who I was before. I don't know everything about the TARDIS though even when I try to ask for it. It seems that I'm still limited in some ways even now," Clara said.

"Well that's because the TARDIS' main consciousness only tells you what you need to know when you need to know it so that it doesn't overload your mind. It doesn't want you to turn into Donna and have your brain on fire," the Doctor said.

"It's so sad that I actually know what you're talking about now. I know who Donna is and exactly what happened to her now. That poor girl. I can see all of your companions now and how so many of them left you against their will for one reason or another. I can feel how much that's hurt you over the years. No wonder you were so upset when I met you back in the Victorian Era. The Ponds were just the latest to leave and tear your hearts out," Clara said.

"You remember meeting me back then now? Do you remember Oswin now too?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, I do. It's weird. They were me and yet not me. That's kind of the way I feel about being the TARDIS now too. I am her and yet not her. As far as I'm concerned, I'm Clara first and the TARDIS second," Clara said.

"I feel the exact same way, Clara. I promise," the Doctor said.

Clara smiled at him as she said, "Well, where do you want to go, Chin Boy?"

"Do you mean that you have control over the coordinates too now?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, I do and it's a good thing. Now we'll finally know where we're going for a change. Or at least I will. I think I'll keep it a secret from you. It'll be your just desserts for doing it to me for so long," Clara said grinning.

"Don't I get a say in where we're going?" the Doctor asked as he started to pout.

"Sure, knock yourself out. I'm not saying that I'll listen to you, but I'll at least take it under consideration," Clara said as her smile became even wider.

"How about we go to Paris just like we were originally going to?" the Doctor said.

"That's what I was going to do anyway no matter what you said. I'm glad that we both agree on it though," Clara said hugging him.

"I think after what happened to you today that you deserve it. Only the best for my Old Girl," the Doctor said as he returned her hug.

"I told you not to call me that! Do you want me to lock you out of your room tonight? I'll do it if you call me that again," Clara protested.

"Alright, alright. You're so touchy," the Doctor said.

"I'm touchy?! You're one to talk. You're all about being touchy feely. That's Rule Number Two by the way. You're not stroking me like you do to the console or I'll chuck you out into the nearest star. You can hug me if you want but that's it," Clara said giggling.

"I'm starting to miss the mad bitey lady," the Doctor said with a sigh, but he continued to hug her anyway.

"Oh, shut up, Chin Boy," Clara said as she kissed his cheek.

Behind the two of them, switches and knobs turned and moved on their own at Clara's mental command as she sent them on their way for their very first trip with her in charge. She was already thinking about what she was going to do in Paris and more importantly what she was going to buy even as she mentally piloted the TARDIS.

She actually began to think that she might enjoy this new life of hers after all.

The Doctor meanwhile was completely overjoyed by all of this. If the TARDIS was going to be anyone, he was glad that it had been his Clara.

**So did you enjoy it? I intended it as just a one-shot, but now I've decided to do more. I could easily see this possibly being its own universe like War of the Guardians or The Return of the Girl Who Waited. Please let me know what you think and thank you for reading!**

**Next: As Clara goes to Paris to do some shopping, the Doctor runs into someone that he thought he'd never see again there and gets to say a final goodbye.  
**


	2. A Final Goodbye

CHAPTER 2

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**Well, your enormous response convinced me to continue this story so here's the second chapter. I hope you like it. Thank you.**

A FINAL GOODBYE

The TARDIS materialized next to the Eiffel Tower, and Clara immediately ran outside to look at it. She smiled as she looked at the massive structure in wonder.

"It's beautiful," Clara said smiling.

The Doctor didn't even bother to respond. He was too busy looking at that smile on Clara's face and thinking that nothing could be more beautiful than her at that moment.

Clara blushed as she said, "Stop that!"

"What?" the Doctor asked, and then he blushed too as he remembered that Clara knew what he was thinking now.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said as he turned away from her in embarrassment.

Clara quickly changed the subject as she said, "What shape do you want me to change it to?"

"What?" the Doctor asked as he was momentarily caught off guard.

"The TARDIS. What shape should I make it? I mean don't you get tired of the Police Box all the time?" Clara asked with a wicked grin on her face.

She already knew what he was going to say, and it wasn't because she was now telepathically linked to him. It was because she had already gotten to know him so well as Clara.

"Don't you dare touch it! I like it that way. Police Boxes are cool," the Doctor said proudly.

"Are you sure? I think I should make it into something useful that we can take around with us like a car instead or maybe I should make it into something that will always tell us the time like a large cuckoo clock. That last one seems pretty appropriate to me," Clara joked.

"No! Leave my TARDIS alone!" the Doctor protested.

"Your TARDIS? You don't own the TARDIS, Doctor. If anything, she owns you. That makes you mine, and I'm never letting you go," Clara said.

The Doctor looked at her in shock, and she realized how what she had said had just sounded and was horrified. She was so embarrassed that she couldn't even look at him.

Then she blushed as she said, "I didn't mean . . . I mean . . . I was just joking around. Of course, I'd never change the Police Box. I love it too. Why else do you think I let you keep it all of these centuries?"

"You let me keep it? Is it getting easier for you now thinking of yourself as the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, some. Like I said, she's me and yet not me. That helps me somehow to keep the part of me that is Clara separate from the part that's the TARDIS. Don't worry. I'm okay," Clara said.

"I always worry about you, Clara, especially now," the Doctor said.

"Don't then. I'm fine. Now that I'm here I'm better than fine. I finally get to see Paris just like I always wanted to do when I was little. I've wanted to come here for so long now, Doctor. It's almost like a dream," Clara said looking at the tower again in awe.

"So are we going to see the sights first before you look at clothes?" the Doctor asked hopefully.

He would much rather do that instead. He had no desire to look at women's clothes for hours on end, and he didn't know why Clara did either. She could always make herself any clothes that she wanted now that she had control over the Wardrobe Room.

"I want something that someone else came up with that's why. It's very boring creating your own clothing. It's nice to see something different and new," Clara replied to his unspoken thoughts.

He looked at her in surprise, and she said, "Sorry. That's annoying for both of us I know. I'm going to try shutting your thoughts out from now on. I hope that works."

"It's alright. I don't mind you being in my head. I'm keeping certain things carefully guarded, but you're welcome to see everything else," the Doctor said.

"Thank you but I don't feel right about it. You should have some sense of privacy," Clara said.

"I appreciate that. I just want you to know that I don't mind it though because it's you," the Doctor said.

Clara smiled as she said, "That's very sweet of you."

She had to repress the urge to kiss him. She was becoming more and more affectionate towards him now, and she didn't know why. She attributed it to the TARDIS' emotions now merging with her own. This new life of hers just kept getting more and more complicated.

"Clara, are you alright?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just going to take a while getting used to the TARDIS' presence in my head," Clara said.

She smiled at him as she said, "Let's go shopping. We'll see the sights later. Right now I want some new clothes so that I can look at Paris in style."

"Alright, fine," the Doctor said pouting.

"Stop pouting! It's not like you're going to a funeral. It won't be so bad, Doctor. I promise I won't stay too long, okay?" Clara said.

"I hope not. Unless I'm looking at a nice hat or bow tie I get bored with looking at clothes very quickly," the Doctor said still pouting.

"If you're very good and stop pouting, I'll make you a nice new fez as a special treat," Clara promised.

The Doctor's face lit up like it was Christmas as he said, "Really?"

"Yes. It'll make it however you want it. Just describe it to me, and it'll be yours," Clara said.

"Why didn't you ever do that for me before?" the Doctor asked.

"I never needed to keep you quiet so I could go shopping before. I know from experience that if you promise to give children a shiny new toy to play with it keeps them on their best behavior though," Clara said giggling.

"That's not funny. I am not a child," the Doctor said pouting some more.

"You could have fooled me. Come on. Stop being like that. I will make you a fez, and I'll also let you pick the next trip. Well, the trip after the next one anyway. There's something special happening for the next trip. The very next trip after that though you can go anywhere you want to go. Please just behave for a while and don't go getting into trouble like you do when you're bored, okay?" Clara asked.

"I don't do that," the Doctor protested.

"Yes, you do. You always do. Just behave," Clara said.

"This sounds a lot like the conversation that we had when you were Idris," the Doctor said.

"I know and I'm sorry. I'm not trying to start that up again. I'm Clara not Idris. I'm the kinder, gentler TARDIS," Clara said.

"Hah! The bossy TARDIS you mean," the Doctor said.

"Oh, shut up," Clara said smiling at him.

The Doctor smiled back at her and said, "I promise I'll do my best not to complain as long as you don't stay too long. And if I get a fez."

"Good. Thanks, Doctor," Clara said as she gave him an affectionate hug.

The Doctor cleared his thought as she held him just a little too long. She let go embarrassed again as she said, "Sorry. Part of me isn't used to being able to hug you, and she wanted to enjoy it just a little longer."

"Oh. Well, that's okay then," the Doctor said.

Clara continued to blush and quickly turned back around to hide it as she led the way to the nearest clothing store that she saw. Her eyes widened with disbelief, and she raced to look at all of the different fashions there. She was positively squealing with glee.

The Doctor sighed. He knew that he had just lost her. He wondered how long she would drag him around Paris before one of them would start a huge fight. He really was going to try not to get angry or annoyed because he didn't want his first trip with the new her to be ruined.

It was just that all of this sitting still watching her try things on was just so boring. He hated experiencing time linearly. He didn't know how humans coped.

"Doctor?" a familiar voice asked.

He looked up knowing who he was going to see there, and yet it still shocked him to see her nonetheless. Both of his hearts skipped a beat in that moment.

"Amy," the Doctor said.

"Are you alright, Doctor? I'm sorry if I surprised you. I'm here on a modeling job. I certainly never expected to see you here, but I can't say that I'm too surprised. I assume from that shocked look on your face that you didn't come to see me so it must be aliens. So what kind of threat is Paris under? Who is it this time? The Weeping Angels?"

"No. It's not the Angels this time, Pond. What makes you say that?" the Doctor said as he did his best to maintain his composure and not breakdown in front of her.

"It's all of the gargoyles and statues everywhere that's what. Every time I see any of them I always keep looking at them until I'm out of sight of them just in case," Amy said smiling.

The Doctor started to cry despite himself, and Amy automatically wrapped her arms around him as she said, "What is it, Doctor? What's wrong?"

"Absolutely nothing, Pond. Everything's fine. I'm fine," the Doctor lied.

"No, you're not. I know you too well to believe that, Raggedy Man. Tell me what's wrong. What are you doing here anyway?" Amy said.

"I asked him to come so that I could do some shopping. He's probably literally bored to tears right now from waiting on me so long. Sorry about that, Doctor," Clara said as she suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Amy looked happy and yet very sad at the same time as she asked, "Are you his newest companion?"

"Me? Oh, no. I'm not a companion at all, Amelia. I'm much more than that," Clara said.

What are you doing? The Doctor mouthed to her but she ignored him.

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

"I'll give you a hint," Clara said.

A dematerialization sound came out of her mouth and she cringed. She never wanted to do that again. It was just way too weird.

"You're the TARDIS?" Amy asked in shock.

"Got it in one, Amelia. You were always smart even as a child though so that doesn't surprise me," Clara said.

"You're different this time though, and I don't just mean your appearance. You act more . . ." Amy started to say and then reconsidered her next word.

"Normal? Sane?" Clara asked grinning.

"Yeah. I mean you're not talking with weird verb tenses, telling us about the future before it even happens, or trying to bite me," Amy said.

"Not yet anyway," Clara said laughing.

Amy started slowly backing away and Clara said, "Trust me, Amy. I'm not going to try to bite you this time, okay? I'm just a normal girl this time around. Well, as normal as someone who would travel with the Doctor could ever be I suppose."

Amy laughed and Clara was glad to see the tension leave her body as she said, "I like this version of you much better than the last one. No offense."

"None taken. I'm much better than her I agree. I'm sorry if I interrupted your conversation, but I just wanted to explain why the Doctor is so upset. You see I'm going away soon. It's a long story but this body isn't permanent either just like my last one wasn't. I'm going to . . . cease to exist in another day or so. I wanted to come here and enjoy my last day as a real girl, and the Doctor is of course upset about losing me again. He got me back only to lose me a second time," Clara lied.

"I'm so sorry, Doctor. I know what this must be doing to you to see her again only to know that you're about to lose her. It'll be okay though, Raggedy Man. I swear it will. You'll still have her around just not the way that you want her to be," Amy said as she hugged him.

"Amy, if . . . if it were you and it were the last time that you were ever going to see the Doctor, what would you say to him? What would you tell him if this were your last chance to talk to him? I'm not sure what to say when the end comes, and I'd just like to hear what you would tell him to keep him from missing you so much," Clara said.

The Doctor looked at Clara in shock and yet with appreciation. She was giving Amy a chance to see goodbye to him. A real proper goodbye. He hadn't had that the last time.

Amy became very sad just thinking about ever saying goodbye to her Raggedy Man for good even though she knew that it would eventually happen someday. She carefully thought out her answer and then said what was in her heart.

She looked the Doctor right in the eyes as she said, "I'd say that I didn't want you to have any regrets or tears over me. I'd tell you not to blame yourself for ruining my life even though I know that you do. I'd also tell you to not waste a single moment crying over me because wherever I am I'm happy, and it would make me unhappy if I thought that I was ever causing you one single moment of pain. I never, ever want to cause you any more pain. You've had more than enough pain to last even a lifetime as long as yours. No, when you think of me I only want you to remember fish fingers and custard, and then I want you to smile. I want you to remember every good time that we ever had, and I want you to smile. If you don't, I'll find out about it wherever I am. Then I swear I'll find some way to come back and slap the life out of you!"

She had to pause for a moment because she became very emotional, and then she said, "I'm sorry. It's just hard for me to think about."

"It's okay, Amy. I'm sorry for upsetting you. I just wanted to ask you what you'd say because I didn't know what to say myself. I think that you just said it better than I ever could though. Thank you, Amy," Clara said as she took the Doctor's hand to give him emotional support.

Clara could see that he was shaking all over with emotion and was deeply touched by what Amy had told him. It had made a major difference to him and had given him a much needed sense of closure.

Just as she had planned.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I can't stay much longer or I'll be late to my modeling job. I was going to blow it off if you needed me, but apparently you don't this time," Amy said as she tried to recover her composure.

"We did need you though, Amy, and you come through with flying colors just like you always do. You always take care of my Doctor for me," Clara said gratefully.

"I always will too as long as I can," Amy said.

"Thank you . . . for everything," Clara said.

The two of them embraced and then Clara said, "Could I get your autograph?"

"What?" Amy asked completely surprised.

"Well, that's what real humans do, right? They ask celebrities for their autographs. You're a big celebrity now, and that was my wish on my last day. I wanted to come to Paris, take in the sights, shop, and meet a famous celebrity. Now I'm going to get an autograph like a real person would," Clara said.

Amy smiled at Clara thinking that she was still just a bit mad even in this form as she pulled a book out of her pocket and said, "Could you sign this for me?"

Amy looked at it and said, "Summer Falls? That's a good title for a book. Why do you want me to sign this for?"

"It's a very good book, and it's helped me to make it through my brief time here. I just wanted you to sign it so that when the Doctor is missing me that he can look at it, see your signature there, and smile. That way he'll be smiling at memories of both of us," Clara said as she looked at her in a meaningful way.

Amy nodded understanding her meaning. She signed the title page as Clara carefully hid the name of the writer from her with her thumb.

Then she squealed in excitement and said, "Oh, thank you. Thank you so much."

Amelia Williams was her favorite writer after all.

"You're welcome," Amy said looking at her like she had two heads.

"Okay, maybe I'm still just a little weird," Clara admitted.

Amy laughed and then became sad as she said, "I'm sorry for what's about to happen. I'm glad that at least you got to come back and see him one last time though."

"So am I. It's good to give the Doctor a second chance to see someone who he thought was lost to him. It warms my heart. Well, goodbye, Amy," Clara said.

"Goodbye," Amy said sadly.

Then she turned to the Doctor and said, "I'm so sorry for what you're about to lose, Doctor. I wish that it didn't have to happen this way. I really do. I'm sorry, Doctor."

"It's not your fault, Amelia. There's nothing that you can do about it. It has to happen this way. At least I had her for a little while, and I'll never be sorry for that no matter how much pain it causes me to have to let go of her again," the Doctor said.

Amy smiled as she said, "That's the right attitude to have. That's the way I'd want you to feel if it were me too."

The Doctor nodded and tried not to cry as he said, "Amy, Don't mention this to me the next time that you see me, okay? I just . . . It'll hurt too much, and I just don't want to be reminded of it."

"Okay. You've got it. I really have to go now. Goodbye, Raggedy Man," Amy said as she hugged him one last time.

"Goodbye, Amelia Pond. Have a good life," the Doctor said as he forced himself to finally let her go.

She looked at him oddly at first as if she wanted to say something, and then she smiled. She waved at him, and then quickly left. She was going to be late. Besides, she'd see him again. She was sure of that.

"Yes, you will see him again, Amelia, and I'll be seeing you as well. You won't recognize me though because I'll be trapped inside a Dalek casing at the time," Clara said to herself in a low voice.

"What?" the Doctor asked.

"Nothing, Doctor. I finally got to meet Amelia Williams and had her sign my book! Isn't that amazing? I mean of course I already met her as the TARDIS and Idris, but that wasn't me meeting her. This was just so amazing," Clara said excited.

"You're such a fangirl," the Doctor said shaking his head.

"I didn't know that you even knew that word," Clara said amazed.

"Of course I do. I make sure and keep up with all of the lingo in every time period. That way I'm very hip and cool no matter what time I'm in," the Doctor said proudly.

"Of course you are, Chin Boy," Clara said as she kissed his cheek.

"Thank you, Clara. Thank you for that. Was that your intention in coming here all along?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, it was. I know that you still miss her, and I just wanted you to get a chance to say goodbye. That was my reward for you for letting me shop. It's much better than any old fez, isn't it?" Clara said.

"It's better than any hat. Much better," the Doctor agreed.

Clara smiled at him and said, "Just let me finish my trip here, and then I swear that I'll take you on a great adventure next time. Madame Vastra's going to call for your help very soon. She needs you for a case that she's working on."

"Really? What is it?" the Doctor asked eagerly.

Clara put her finger to her lips and said, "Spoilers."

"What's the point in having a talking TARDIS if you can't tell me where or when we're going?" the Doctor asked.

"If you always knew where you were going, where would be the fun in that?" Clara asked.

The Doctor smiled as he said, "Yeah. You're right. Oh, I can't wait for this next one. Go ahead and have your fun, Clara, and then I'll have mine. I'll just sit here and try very hard not to be bored."

"Here," Clara said handing him Amy's book.

He looked at her in surprise as he said, "This is yours though."

"I'm letting you borrow it. I expect it back when I'm ready to go. I just wanted you to look at it so that you wouldn't be bored. It'll be like having a little piece of Amy with you," Clara said.

As Clara walked off to start shopping yet again, the Doctor turned to the title page of the book and was completely shocked by what he found there. Amy had written more than just her name.

It read:

I'm glad that you have a new companion and that she's trying to take care of you by making you come say goodbye to me. I don't know what happened to me to separate us, but I meant what I said to you. I also meant the threat so unless you want me to come back and slap you you'd better not be sad while you're reading this.

Goodbye, Raggedy Man. I love you. Amy.

P.S. I don't know how she did that dematerialization noise but that was good. It almost convinced me that she really was the TARDIS. She's much too sane to be Idris though. Still it was a nice try.

The Doctor smiled. Amy could still surprise him even now.

He turned to look at Clara who winked at him. The time seemed to pass much quicker this time as he read and reread Amy's final message to him over and over again. It seemed like no time at all before Clara was ready to go, and he smiled at her as he saw that she had an entirely new wardrobe on.

"You look nice. Then again, you always look nice," the Doctor said.

"Why thank you, Chin Boy. Well, I hate to leave but we have to. It's almost time for Vastra to call, and you definitely don't want to miss this one. Come on, Doctor. We'll just have time to set down and let you eat some fish fingers and custard before we have to go," Clara said.

"How did you know that's what I wanted? You said you were going to stop reading my mind," the Doctor asked.

"I know without even having to. I always know. I didn't have to be the TARDIS to know what's on your mind. You wanted to say your own special last goodbye to her," Clara said.

"Yeah, I did. Will you eat some with me?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, of course I will. Come on, Doctor. Let's go have some. We'll honor her together," Clara said.

The two of them then walked back to the TARDIS hand in hand as the Doctor silently thanked whoever was listening that he had this mad, impossible girl in his life now. At last, he finally had someone to spend the rest of his life with. He no longer had to be alone.

**Next: The Doctor and Clara visit Vastra, Jenny, and Strax and become involved in an exciting adventure as they seek to stop a sinister plot that threatens the entire planet by an old enemy of the Doctor's. The Paternoster Gang, meanwhile, get to experience the changes in Clara firsthand even as she tries to assure them and herself that she's still the same as she ever was.**


	3. The TARDIS' Revenge

CHAPTER 3

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, and reviews.**

THE TARDIS' REVENGE

The TARDIS materialized right in the middle of Madame Vastra's house just a few minutes after she had called the Doctor and told him about her latest case. Unfortunately the house wasn't the only thing that the TARDIS had materialized right in the middle of it seemed.

The Doctor came outside first and looked back at Clara as he said, "Sorry about that landing. It was a little rough for some reason."

"I'll say. I'm surprised you didn't knock us both out with it. I was flung halfway across the Console Room," Clara complained.

Clara noticed that Vastra was glaring at the Doctor for some reason, but she had no idea why. Then she looked down and saw that the Doctor had landed right in the middle of the room and crushed two of her chairs.

"Nice work landing me, Doctor. That's a new low even for you," Clara said rolling her eyes.

Then Clara held her breath and her eyes widened as she realized what she had just said. Vastra didn't seem to notice though. She was much too angry about the chairs. Clara breathed out a sigh of relief once she realized this.

"You didn't have to come that quickly, Doctor. You certainly didn't have to come so fast that you crushed two of my best chairs because you couldn't bother to land properly," Vastra said annoyed.

"I came because of what you said on the phone. You said that there were dolls found in the houses of several missing people," the Doctor said.

"Yes, that's right. There are dolls that are somehow made out of flesh and bone and that resemble the missing people. Somehow I doubt that they're really dolls though. That sounded like a topic that you might know a little something about, and it appears from the mess that you've made of my house that I'm right. Which old enemy of yours is it, Doctor?" Vastra asked.

"The Master," Clara practically hissed.

"Is that why you were talking about Vastra's phone call so much? Because you wanted revenge? That doesn't seem like you," the Doctor said disdainfully.

"How do you know what I'm like? We've been together for . . . for quite a while now, but you really don't know me at all. That man did horrible things both to me and with me, and I'll never forget that," Clara said in anger.

"Who is the Master?" Vastra asked intrigued.

"He's another Time Lord and my worst enemy who managed to make it out of Gallifrey before the end of the Time War. He's been trying to kill me most of my life now. I haven't seen him in a couple of hundred years though, and I was hoping that I never would again. I guess I just wasn't that lucky. He used to use this weapon called the Tissue Compression Eliminator a lot back in his early days, and it would shrink his enemies down to the size of dolls while it instantly killed them. It has to be him. No one else would use something that was that uncool," the Doctor said.

"You haven't seen him in hundreds of years?" Vastra asked.

"Yes, that's right. That was when I was old Sandshoes," the Doctor said.

"How did you know him then, Clara?" Vastra asked suspiciously.

"One of my other selves met him. I remember what he did to her," Clara said which was true enough in its own way. The TARDIS was like another self to her.

"You're not a person that I would have thought was very vengeful though especially over something that didn't happen to you directly," Vastra commented.

"You don't know what he did," Clara said with a haunted look in her eyes.

"No, I suppose not. So you're sure that the disappearances are murders committed by this Master person then?" Vastra asked.

"Yes, I'm sure of it. I've got to find him and find out why he's doing this before anyone else winds up dead. Knowing him it'll be something even worse than murder that's his real plan. He never does anything without a reason. He has to be planning something big, something that will give him some kind of power or he wouldn't have bothered to do all of this. Tell me more about these 'disappearances'," the Doctor said.

As Vastra started to tell him everything that she knew about this bizarre case of hers, Jenny came into the room with a tray with several tea cups on it and said to Clara, "Do you want some tea, Clara?"

"Yes, thank you very much, Jenny. It's behind the bed by the way," Clara said without thinking about it as she took a tea cup from the tray.

"What is?" Jenny asked confused.

"The bracelet that Vastra gave you for your birthday. You were about to ask her if she had seen it. That's where it is. It fell behind there last night when you were, uh . . ." Clara said and then started blushing.

"How did you know about that bracelet? I haven't even told Vastra about it yet. I was afraid that she'd become angry at me for losing it," Jenny admitted.

"Yes, how did you know, Clara?" Vastra asked suspiciously.

"I . . . I don't know. Maybe I'm psychic," Clara said as she started to become very upset.

"It's okay, Clara. If anyone will understand, they will," the Doctor said in a gentle voice.

"Understand what? Have I been left out of a war meeting? Are we planning on finally declaring war on the dreaded Moonite menace at last?" Strax said in excitement as he came into the room.

"No, we're not, Strax. I told you before that no one lives on the moon," Vastra said sighing.

"That's just what they want you to think until they're ready to strike," Strax said.

Clara began to start shaking with emotion as Strax asked, "What's wrong with the boy? Has he been wounded in battle?"

"No, Strax, I haven't. There's something that I guess I should go ahead and tell all of you even though I'm not sure how you'll react to it. I'm . . . I'm the TARDIS," Clara said.

"What?" Vastra asked in shock.

"How?" Jenny asked.

"Nonsense. The Doctor's TARDIS is a large blue box not a human boy. Every Sontaran is trained to recognize it from birth. We even have target practice with life sized TARDIS duplicates as a part of our daily drills. We try to see how many different ways that we can blow it up or otherwise incapacitate it. Such fond memories," Strax said with a smile.

"Thanks ever so much, Strax. You make me feel so loved," Clara grumbled.

"How can you be the TARDIS? I don't see how that could be possible," Vastra said.

Clara explained the whole thing to all of them and then added, "I didn't tell you before because I didn't want any of you to treat me any differently. I'm the same Clara as I always was, and that's how I expect to be treated."

"I assure you that I won't try to blow you up if that's what you're worried about," Strax said.

"I wasn't actually but I'm starting to worry about it now," Clara said as she eyed him warily.

"Oh, don't worry about him, Clara. He likes you," Jenny reassured her.

"We won't treat you any differently, Clara. It is fairly obvious that you're not the same as you were the last time that you were here though. I noticed it the moment that you arrived," Vastra noted.

"See? It's happening already. This is why I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want you to start imagining that I had changed when I really hadn't," Clara said.

"You have changed though, Clara. How else did you know about my bracelet? Thank you about that by the way. I was worried sick about it," Jenny said as she smiled at her.

"You're welcome," Clara said looking worried.

"I promise that we'll continue to treat you exactly the same," Vastra said.

"Thank you," Clara said even though she still looked unconvinced of that.

"Now that that's settled, let's go find the Master. I'll just need to pop back inside the TARDIS and retrieve a little something I left inside of the Old Girl first that I'll need in order to find him," the Doctor said.

"I told you not to call me that," Clara said.

"Okay, Sexy," the Doctor said with a mischievous grin as he received a playful punch in the arm from Clara.

"You're going to go inside of Clara? So you're bigger on the inside in this form as well? You must be. You certainly don't look that large unless your current size is an illusion," Strax said confused.

"He meant my other self, Strax. He's talking about the blue box," Clara said in a very cold voice.

"Oh, yes. Of course," Strax said still looking somewhat confused.

The Doctor quickly went inside the TARDIS and came out with a small device that looked like it had been hastily put together with various odds and ends that the Doctor had found around the TARDIS. Clara didn't have to look into the future to predict that it would probably blow up in the Doctor's face before all was said and done.

"This device is a little something that I jury rigged to track the small energy emissions that the Master's TCE constantly gives off even when he's not using it. I call it the Shrinky Winky Detector," the Doctor said.

"You would," Clara said chuckling.

The Doctor turned the device on and to Clara's surprise it actually worked as it hummed to life and glowed. It immediately started giving off a loud buzzing noise.

The Doctor's face lit up as he said, "I've got him. I'm detecting the TCE somewhere nearby right now. Can I make anything out of spare parts or what? Just call me the King of Jiggery Pokery!"

"I thought you were the King of Cool," Clara said grinning.

"That too," the Doctor said smugly.

They all heard a loud noise nearby that sounded like crashing glass and Vastra said, "You said that your device said that he was nearby, Doctor? How near?"

"Well, according to this . . ." the Doctor said looking a little embarrassed.

"Yes?" Vastra asked annoyed.

"It says that right now he's right outside this room," the Doctor finished as he nervously fixed his bow tie.

"When were you planning on telling us this, Doctor?" Clara asked.

"After I sprang my cunning and devious plan to trap him of course," the Doctor said.

"What is this clever little plan of yours?" Clara asked.

"I don't know yet. I'm in the middle of working on it. I'll let you know when I'm finished," the Doctor admitted.

"It seems that you're a bit of an idiot in this incarnation, Doctor. Then again you never acted too terribly bright in any of your lives," the Master said from the nearest doorway.

They all turned to face him and he held his Laser Screwdriver toward them as he said, "I feel that it's only fair that I should tell you that this is much deadlier and much more accurate than the TCE. I just used it for old time's sake and in order to draw the attention of the Doctor. I knew that he'd recognize it and come running right away."

Clara glared at him and felt an overwhelming desire to punch him right in the mouth.

"You killed all of those people just to bring me here?" the Doctor asked enraged.

"Oh, no. I killed them because they stood in my way. I would have killed them anyway. I shrank them in order to bring you here. They died because they all held certain valuable pieces of information that I needed to know. It seems that they were all employees of a certain group that you may be familiar with called Torchwood. By using my own special brand of persuasive techniques, I was able to find the location of a buried piece of alien technology that fell to Earth years ago and was hidden by their higher ups. The location of this artifact was purposely made hard to find so that no one would ever use it. Unfortunately for them, they never foresaw me finding out about it. It was almost as if it was meant to be since I found myself near a Torchwood base as soon as I reappeared back on Earth in this time after the Time Lock sealed itself back up without me inside of it. I just had to come here and show it to you first once I found it. I wanted you to know all about it before I killed you with it," the Master said.

"How considerate of you," the Doctor said.

"Exactly what is this piece of technology that so many have died for?" Vastra asked.

"I'm so glad you asked," the Master said grinning as he used his free hand to remove a small cube from his pocket that glowed with power.

As the Master held it, his eyes glowed with golden energy. He began to laugh as he said, "Have you guessed what it is yet, Doctor?"

"A piece of the Vortex. Someone actually found a way to trap and contain a piece of the Vortex," the Doctor said sounding impressed and horrified at the same time.

"Not only did they contain it they enabled whoever held it to be able to safely tap into its power and use it. I have the power of a god now, Doctor, and there's nothing that you can do to stop me. I just wanted you here to share in my triumph before I use my newfound power to finally wipe out your precious humans with it. Then after I make you watch their destruction, I'll kill you next. With you gone there will be no one left to bring the Time Lords back here, and I will use my newfound power to become the ruler of everything. Oh, yes. I know about how you saved them. With my new power, I know many things now. No secret is safe from me now," the Master said laughing.

"Really? No secret?" Clara asked as she started to move closer to him.

"Clara, no!" the Doctor shouted.

"This is your latest Earth girl I take it, Doctor. She'll be just as ineffectual as the rest against me especially now," the Master said as he looked at Clara without fear.

"I seem to remember one Earth girl who defeated you pretty much all by herself. Her name was Martha Jones. Remember her, Koschei? Remember how you imprisoned her family? Remember how you imprisoned and tormented my Doctor?" Do you?" Clara asked in a furious voice.

"Clara?" the Doctor asked in an uncertain and almost frightened tone.

"Who are you?" the Master asked as his aura of smug superiority began to fade.

Clara smiled as she said, "You don't know me, do you? You really should though. We spent a lot of time together once while you used me to create a year of Hell across this entire planet. It's a year that thankfully now never was. I still remember it though and how you cannibalized me and used me to hurt the Doctor. You tried to destroy both him and me. Now it's my turn."

"Clara, don't! Whatever you're planning, don't!" the Doctor said.

"You're the TARDIS! How did you do it, Doctor? Are you really that hard up for a date that you had to give the TARDIS a body?" the Master said laughing.

"Shut up!" Clara said as she stretched her hand out to the box that the Master held.

The box started to move toward Clara's outstretched hand as if it were being pulled toward it by a magnet as the Master struggled to hold onto it. He looked at Clara in horror as he said, "What are you doing? You can't do this!"

"There is a piece of the Vortex in that container, Koschei. You'll soon find that I can do anything with the Vortex. Now give it to me," Clara said.

"No, it's mine!" the Master shouted as he used the cube to fire a blast of energy at Clara.

Clara absorbed the energy through her hand and her eyes momentarily glowed with it as she said, "Thanks, I needed that."

The Master continued to attack Clara with the cube, but she absorbed each and every blast. Then he became desperate and started to use it to attack the Doctor. The Doctor fell to the floor in agony as he used the power of the Vortex against him.

"Stay back or I'll kill your precious Doctor," the Master threatened.

"I don't think so," Vastra said as she suddenly punched the Master in the jaw.

She was quickly joined by Jenny who kicked the Master in the kidneys. Strax was not to be left out of the fight either as he grabbed the Master, lifted him up over his head, and hurled him into the nearest wall.

The piece of Vortex was flung from the Master's hand and went flying through the air until it suddenly stopped just before it hit the ground. It then changed directions and quickly sailed right into Clara's waiting hand.

As the Master started to get up, Clara said, "Now it's time for me to get my revenge for what you did to me all of those years ago."

"Clara, no!" the Doctor said as he struggled to get up off of the floor.

Clara's eyes glowed as she used the piece of the Vortex on the Master and he shouted, "No! No!"

Suddenly he was covered from head to toe in soufflé mix as it fell all over him from out of nowhere. Then he was covered in milk and eggs that also seemed to drop down out of the sky. The Master screamed in fury as he tried to wipe them all out of his eyes. While he was momentarily blinded by them, Clara punched him in the jaw as hard as she could and knocked him out cold.

As he lay on the ground covered in all of the ingredients for baking a soufflé, Clara said with a smile, "I do believe that's the best soufflé that I've ever made."

The Doctor smiled in pride at her and gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead as he said, "I'm so glad that you didn't do something else instead."

"The TARDIS inside of me wanted to, Doctor. Believe me. In the end though, I talked her out of it because I reminded her that you would be disappointed in her. I would have been disappointed in myself too if I had gone through with it. Besides, I like this way better. So what are we going to do with Mr. Egg All Over His Face?" Clara asked grinning.

"I vote that we take him to the Shadow Proclamation and let them put him away somewhere. Then we can release the piece of the Vortex back to where it belongs," the Doctor said.

"Really? That's what you're going to do with him? You once wanted to take him with us for the rest of his life. What's different this time?" Clara asked.

"I was all alone then. Now I'm not anymore. Now I've got you," the Doctor said smiling.

"You've got me? You sound so sure about that, Chin Boy," Clara said as she smiled at him.

"I've never been more sure about anything," the Doctor said as he drew closer to her as if he were about to kiss her.

Then he suddenly became nervous and pulled away. Clara shook her head and decided that she was going to have to overcome this incarnation's natural awkwardness.

The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise as Clara suddenly grabbed him and kissed him. Then he started to kiss her back as a huge smile covered his entire face.

The Master used the distraction caused by this to try to get away, but he was quickly caught by Strax. The Sontaran grabbed him firmly by the shoulders as Vastra looked at the Master and licked her lips.

"Do you think that I should eat him, Jenny? I've never had a Time Lord before. I wonder what they taste like," Vastra said in a nonchalant voice.

"No, I think you'd probably get an upset stomach if you ate that one, dear," Jenny said laughing.

"You're probably right. Still I'm very, very tempted," Vastra said looking at him as if he were a full course meal.

"Doctor, get me away from these crazy people! Doctor! Do you hear me?!" the Master screamed.

The Doctor wasn't listening though. At that moment, all that existed in the universe was him and Clara.

"Well, it's about time, isn't it?" Jenny said.

"I agree. I was beginning to think that they were both a bit thick," Vastra said.

"If you're not going to eat him, Madame, could I? I must admit that you've made me very curious now as to what Time Lords taste like," Strax said.

"Doctor!" the Master screamed in terror as the Sontaran looked him up and down.

"Did you hear something?" the Doctor asked Clara with a confused look on his face for a moment.

"Not a thing, Doctor. Get back over here," Clara said as she pulled him back into a kiss.

"This could be a while," Vastra said.

"I should best spend the time letting the water to cook him in boil then," Strax said.

"Doctor!" the Master screamed again, and then Strax knocked him out cold again and tied him up.

"That should take care of him for a while. Now I have to get ready for this evening's meal. I wonder what seasoning would be best for him," Strax said as he walked away.

"Do you think he's kidding, ma'am?" Jenny asked in an uncertain voice.

"With Strax I can never be sure. I think we should break them up quickly before we find out," Vastra said.

Then the two of them smiled as they watched their two friends kiss, and Jenny said, "We should give them just a few more minutes I think."

Vastra nodded and said, "Yes, we should. If anyone deserves it, they do. This should be their special moment. I think they've both waited long enough for it."

**Next: After dropping the Master off at the Shadow Proclamation, the Doctor and Clara find out from them that the box containing the piece of the Vortex that Torchwood found was not a fluke. It appears that several other boxes also containing pieces of the Vortex have appeared on other planets and created problems on them also. What's going on here and who or what is behind it all? **


	4. The Mystery of the Vortex Thieves

CHAPTER 4

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, and reviews.**

THE MYSTERY OF THE VORTEX THIEVES

"Will you two stop kissing? You're making me sick to my stomach. You've done nothing but swallow each other's faces since we've been traveling," the Master complained.

"What's the matter? Are you jealous, Koschei?" Clara said laughing at him.

"TARDIS or not you're not that great a catch. You're too short and your nose looks funny," the Master said.

"I used to think that too about her nose, but now I think it looks just perfect. I wouldn't have it any other way," the Doctor said.

"That makes me both angry and happy at the same time when you say that, Doctor. I'll go with happy though because I've known you too long to disintegrate you now," Clara said kissing him.

The Doctor looked a bit disturbed by her words when she pulled away from the kiss so she quickly said, "I would never hurt you, Doctor. I was just joking. Besides didn't River threaten to do much worse than that to you several times?"

"Oh, yeah. Good times," the Doctor said smiling fondly.

Clara shook her head at him as she said, "I'm glad that they were good for someone. She shot me remember? I also was blown up while she was flying me. If I didn't like her so much, I might have taken that personally."

"The two of you deserve each other. You're both completely mad," the Master said with disgust.

"If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is," Clara said.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I'd miss one of your Earth girls, Doctor. All of them combined were much less annoying than her," the Master protested.

"That reminds me. Should we take on a new one of your strays? Or maybe pick up an old one and give them another shot?" Clara asked as she ignored the Master's comment.

"Why? I mean I wouldn't trade any of my friends for anything, but why do we need someone else? You're my only companion now. You're the only companion that I want. I thought that you didn't like my companions anyway," the Doctor said.

"I never said that. It's just that I liked some of them better than others like Sarah Jane and my Wolf," Clara said.

She looked uncomfortable for a minute and the Doctor asked, "What is it?"

"It's more Idris than me talking now. I don't like it. I don't want to be absorbed by her," Clara said worried.

"She told me that she wouldn't do that to you, Clara, and I believe her. Don't worry," the Doctor said as he held her and ran his fingers through her hair to calm her down.

"I do worry. This still frightens me, Doctor. It's all just a bit too much to take all at once. That's why I thought that maybe we could pick up another person. I'd prefer another girl really. I need someone to keep me human. I'm afraid that I'm going to lose myself," Clara said.

"Don't worry, Clara. I won't let that happen. I love you just the way that you are crooked nose and all," the Doctor said with an impish grin on his face.

"Thanks," Clara said with a frown as she pretended to be angry at him before kissing him again with a smile.

"Sickening," the Master grumbled.

"I'm so glad that we're dropping him off. If I had to put up with much more of his lip, I'd be throwing him out into the Vortex before the day was over with," Clara said as she glared at the Master.

"Right now I'd welcome that," the Master said grumbling some more.

The TARDIS soon landed at the Shadow Proclamation, and the Doctor quickly handed the Master over to them before Clara could commit murder. He then told them about the piece of the Vortex that Torchwood had found.

"I knew that you would find one of them if anyone would, Doctor. You're always hip deep in trouble," the Shadow Architect, the leader of the Shadow Proclamation, said with a grin.

"Don't I know it," Clara said laughing.

"You are?" the Architect asked as she looked at Clara questioningly.

"Clara Oswald," Clara said as she introduced herself.

"The TARDIS," the Architect said in amazement.

"How did you know that? I didn't even know that myself until recently," Clara said.

"We have heard stories of you appearing in the past and revealing yourself as the Doctor's TARDIS in addition to being his traveling companion. It's an honor to meet you," the Architect said shaking her hand.

"In these stories, am I still human?" Clara asked worried.

"I'm not sure what you mean. You don't seem any different to me than any of the descriptions that I've read about you if that helps any," the Architect said.

"I guess so. Thanks," Clara said.

"You said that I found one of them. What do you mean by that? How many more are there?" the Doctor asked curious.

"There have been many more found on several planets throughout the centuries. No one ever knew where they came from or who managed to capture a piece of the Vortex that way. Wherever they have landed though, they have created nothing but chaos and destruction. It's lucky that the Earth's piece of the Vortex was found quickly and hidden," the Architect said.

"Tell me more about these other pieces of the Vortex and what happened to the planets that they landed on," the Doctor asked intrigued.

Clara soon became overwhelmed by the tragedy within all of these stories and wandered off. After hearing the third story about one of the pieces, she quickly caught onto the overall pattern behind them all. The pieces of the Vortex were always found by someone like the Master who used them to cause massive death and destruction on every planet where they landed.

She found herself standing alone as she wondered what her future held. The TARDIS part of her could tell her, but she preferred not to know. It was much better that way in her opinion.

"Here, Miss. Some tea," an albino servant of the same race as the Architect said as she handed Clara a small tea cup.

"Thank you," Clara said as she drank the tea gratefully.

"Don't worry, Miss. You'll always be yourself. The TARDIS wants you to stay just as you are now because she wants him to be happy," the servant said.

"How do you know that?" Clara asked surprised.

"I often have glimpses of the future, Miss," the servant said smiling at her.

"Thank you for telling me that, Miss . . ." Clara said as she fished for her name.

"You can call me Liz if you want. It's short for my real name, Lizzerath'an Scherzo," the servant said.

"Yeah, I definitely prefer Liz to that," Clara said laughing.

"Most people do, Miss," Liz said.

"Call me Clara," Clara insisted.

"Thank you, Clara. It's nice to meet you," Liz said smiling at her.

"Same here, Liz. Tell me would you like to go traveling through time and space?" Clara offered.

"I'm honored, Clara, but I have too many duties here in order to do such a thing. You will find someone to travel with you though very soon now," Liz said.

"Good to know. Can you give me any information about who's behind the mysterious Vortex pieces that keep showing up everywhere?" Clara asked.

"I don't know much I'm afraid. I just know that it is an old enemy of the Doctor's. You will have to keep an extra eye out for him if you want him to survive what is to come. I'm sorry that I can't tell you any more than that," Liz said.

"That's okay, Liz. That's more than I knew before anyway," Clara said.

"Come along, Oswald. It's time to go. I've got to track down the source of these Vortex pieces. I can't let this keep happening. Can you imagine what would have happened if the Master had kept that one piece? What if someone else just as bad as him got ahold of another one? I can't take that risk," the Doctor said.

"Don't ever call me Oswald again, Doctor," Clara warned.

"Right. Come along, Sexy," the Doctor said grinning.

"You know I could get used to that," Clara said laughing as she followed him back inside the TARDIS.

Standing nearby in chains the Master watched with cold, hate filled eyes as the TARDIS dematerialized. He silently promised himself that the next time that he met Clara that he would make what he did to the TARDIS during the Year That Never Was look tame in comparison.

"So we're going back to visit Earth? Why? How will that help us locate the source of the stolen pieces?" Clara asked.

"How did you . . . ? Oh, right. I'll have to get used to you knowing every destination that we go to from now on. I guess I won't be able to surprise you anymore. That was part of the fun," the Doctor said pouting.

"I could always deny myself that information if you want just like I'm denying myself certain key pieces of information about the future so that I don't accidentally or intentionally alter it. I have to admit that it was kind of fun when I didn't know what was coming next," Clara said.

"No, that's okay. You always take me to where I need to go, remember? Keep doing that," the Doctor said.

"I think that the other part of me would do that anyway even without me but okay," Clara agreed.

"I'm going back to Earth because that was where the last piece found so far landed, and it's the first planet where the piece didn't cause death and destruction because we stopped it. Whoever sent that piece there might just come there to look into what happened. Don't you think?" the Doctor asked with a sneaky grin on his face.

"So you're sure that it's being done on purpose and not some sort of accident then?" Clara said as she kept what Liz had told her earlier to herself.

She didn't want to alter what he would do by giving him knowledge that he shouldn't have yet. She hated to keep anything from him, but the part of the TARDIS that was inside of her told her that it was necessary.

"Yes, I am. The pieces have been sent to too many crucial eras and places of each individual planet's history to be a coincidence. Someone is trying to alter history on a grand scale in order to benefit themselves. I still haven't figured out who or why yet, but I have my suspicions," the Doctor said.

"Doctor, I . . ." Clara started to say.

"I know what you're going to say. You already know that it's one of my old enemies from the servant back at the Shadow Proclamation. I overheard you talking to her," the Doctor said.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. The other half of me told me not to tell you, but I don't feel right about that," Clara said.

The Doctor smiled at her as he said, "It's alright. Listen to what the other half of you says from now on, Clara. She's usually right."

The TARDIS console made an indignant noise as Clara said with a frown, "Usually right?"

"You're always right, okay?" the Doctor said shaking his head at her.

"That's better," Clara said with a smile as she kissed him.

"You really are my wife, aren't you?" the Doctor said in a low voice.

"Not yet," Clara said mischievously.

"I thought that you weren't looking into the future," the Doctor said.

"I'm not but I'm just hoping," Clara said.

The Doctor smiled at her as the TARDIS silently landed while invisible. He didn't want to tip anyone who was already at his destination off about his presence there.

Clara stiffened as she said, "You've landed us at the original crash site the day after we stopped the Master just like you wanted, Doctor. We're not the only ones here though."

"No, I didn't think that we would be. They're here, aren't they?" the Doctor asked.

"You already know who it is, don't you? Yes, of course you do. I see it in your mind. Sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I've been trying to give you some privacy," Clara apologized.

"It's alright, Clara. I already told you before that I don't mind you being in there," the Doctor said.

"We can't just go out there without any weapons. They'll cut us down in seconds. If you hadn't turned me invisible, they'd already be firing on us," Clara said.

"I'm not going out there. Not yet anyway. For the moment, I'm here only to watch and see what happens next," the Doctor said as he turned the TARDIS' monitor on.

"I wonder how long you'll stick to that," Clara said to herself with a smirk.

Then they both became silent as they watched a small army of Daleks patrolling the field where the piece of the Vortex had landed years before. They searched for it for several minutes, and then began to visibly grow frustrated.

"ALL AVAILABLE EVIDENCE HAS COLLABORATED WHAT WE HAVE ALREADY SUSPECTED. THE PIECE OF THE VORTEX THAT WE SENT TO DISRUPT THE VICTORIAN ERA OF THIS PLANET'S HISTORY HAS SUDDENLY DISAPPEARED AS HAS THE MASTER WHO WE ALSO SENT HERE TO UTILIZE IT. OUR CAREFULLY LAID PLANS HAVE BEEN DISRUPTED ON THIS WORLD," one of the Daleks said.

"IT IS THE DOCTOR," another Dalek said.

A familiar voice to the Doctor said, "Of course it is. Who else always has the almost impossible knack of being in just the right place at the right time to always spoil our plans?"

"Well, I do try," the Doctor said smugly back inside the TARDIS.

"I'm the one who always sends you to the right time and place, Thief, and don't you forget it," Clara reminded him.

"That was Idris talking, wasn't it?" the Doctor asked looking at Clara sympathetically.

"I'm afraid so. At least she warned me about it this time," Clara said.

Back outside the Daleks all honored the newcomer among them as they said, "ALL HAIL THE CREATOR."

"Yes, yes. Enough of that. We need to come up with a back-up plan now. Up until now our Vortex pieces have always been successful in helping us rewrite our own history and keeping us from losing certain battles by making sure that the winners of those battles never developed space technology so that they weren't there to defeat us in the first place. Those tests of our newest weapon were all successful but inconsequential in our overall history since they were all minor losses. Changing this planet's history is much more important though. In fact, it is of the utmost importance. We need to make sure that the Earth's history is drastically changed so that we can change the Doctor's entire timeline. How different would his history be without his precious companions from the 20th and 21st centuries? I believe that he would not be anywhere near as successful without them. I overlooked them as insignificant many times before but after the woman named Donna Noble defeated us at the Medusa Cascade I will do so no longer. The Doctor's companions must be erased from history," Davros said.

"So that's it. That's hands down the most evil thing that Davros has ever come up with since he created the Daleks themselves. Erasing my friends is not cool," the Doctor said in anger.

"Not to mention the fact that they've all saved your life more times than either of us can count," Clara added.

"Especially you. I won't let anything happen to you, Clara," the Doctor said firmly.

"I think that I could keep myself from being erased if the worst happened but I'm not sure," Clara admitted.

"You won't ever have to find out. We're going to see what his back-up plan is and put a stop to this once and for all," the Doctor said.

Outside Davros said, "We will send another piece of the Vortex to a later period in Earth's history. This time it will be to London in 1963 just before the First Doctor landed there. If the entire planet is devastated before he even gets there, then he will never start taking on human companions in the first place."

"I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, CREATOR. WHY ARE WE ATTACKING IN SUCH A SUBTLE WAY? WHY NOT ATTACK MORE DIRECTLY WITH A HUGE FORCE?" one of the Daleks asked.

"Because we've done that before and we were always defeated. This method had proven much more successful on several occasions. The humans won't even know what's happening until it's much too late and neither will the Doctor. This time we will make sure that the piece is found immediately and not hidden away. Send it now," Davros ordered.

"WE OBEY," the Daleks said in unison.

"Doctor, they're using a time corridor to send the piece of the Vortex to Earth in the future. This time they're sending a Dalek puppet with it to make sure that's it's found and used," Clara said.

"I thought that you weren't looking into the future," the Doctor said.

"I said I was denying myself certain pieces of information on it not all of it. Keep up," Clara said deliberately mocking him.

"I can't tell you what I'm feeling right now," the Doctor said looking at her with a huge smile all over his face.

"I know. I am pretty amazing. Cute too," Clara said giggling.

"You're never earned this name more than right this minute. Come along, Sexy. Geronimo!" the Doctor said as he dematerialized and immediately started pushing several buttons and twisting several knobs on the console.

"What are you up to now?" Clara asked amused.

"I'm trying to divert the time corridor so that it comes out someplace else. Hopefully someplace much more modern and less destructive to my own timeline," the Doctor said.

The Doctor twirled around with joy as he said, "I did it. I sent it to London on Easter 2010 right after Sandshoes left there. UNIT's still there cleaning up the invasion of the Stingrays that just happened so they should be able to detect the Dalek puppet and be right on top of it. I'll just go there to make sure of it."

"Uh oh," Clara said as she saw what was happening even before the TARDIS got there.

"Uh oh? What do you mean 'Uh oh'?" the Doctor said with concern.

Inside of a flying double-decker bus, Lady Christina de Souza smiled as she got away from the police who were pursuing her. Little did she know that she was about to get into even worse trouble.

A glowing cube appeared right next to Christina and she looked at it in a combination of shock and surprise. She was about to pick it up when she heard a voice behind her shout, "DO NOT MOVE!"

She dared to move her eyes to see an otherwise ordinary looking woman standing next to her with a Dalek eyestalk coming out of her forehead and a gun stick protruding out of her hand. The woman was pointing the weapon right at Christina's heart.

"FLY THIS VEHICLE TO WHERE I TELL YOU TO AND DO NOT ATTEMPT TO STOP ME OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" the Dalek puppet ordered.

"Whatever you say. You're the boss," Christina said.

For now anyway. I don't know who you are or what you're up to, but I know that it's not good. I'll find some way to stop you if it's the last thing that I do. Christina thought.

At the back of the bus, the TARDIS silently materialized, and the Doctor gasped in recognition as he said, "Christina? What are the odds of her getting it?"

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I interfered at the last second. I was trying to isolate it the best way that I could by putting it on her bus," Clara apologized.

"I hope that Christina doesn't wind up paying for that decision," the Doctor said.

"I'll do my best to make sure that doesn't happen," Clara promised.

The two of them silently stepped out of the TARDIS as they tried to sneak up on the Dalek puppet while the Doctor quietly pulled out his sonic screwdriver in order to quickly disable it. The puppet evidently had better hearing than they thought though as it quickly whirled around and shouted, "EXTERMINATE ALL INTRUDERS!"

Then it shot Clara in the chest with its gun stick, and she fell to the ground with a loud scream of pain.

"Clara!" the Doctor shouted in terror as she lay there silent and unmoving.

"EXTERMINATE!" the Dalek puppet shouted yet again as it fired on the Doctor next.

**Next: Is Clara really dead? Can the Doctor save the Earth from this newest attack by the Daleks? That's assuming that he survives the next few seconds of course. What role will Christina play in the Doctor's future and what happens if she picks up the piece of the Vortex? **


	5. A New Companion At Last

CHAPTER 5

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, and reviews.**

A NEW COMPANION AT LAST

Christina quickly punched the Dalek puppet in the back of the head and caused its blast to miss the Doctor. The Doctor then used his sonic screwdriver to attack it, and it screamed out in pain as the Doctor started attacking the nanogenes in its system.

"Where did you get that? It looks a lot like a friend of mine's," Christina asked as she looked at the Doctor's sonic screwdriver suspiciously.

"Never mind where I got it, Christina. Just keep driving the bus," the Doctor said.

Christina looked behind her in horror to see that the bus was rapidly approaching a tall building and quickly steered them out of its way. She sighed in relief even as her mind quickly registered that he had known her name.

"Who are you? How do you know me? Are you here to take me in? How did you even get on here anyway?" Christina asked as she bombarded him with questions.

"Will you please shut up? My head's hurting enough as it is," Clara said behind the Doctor.

"Clara, are you okay?" the Doctor asked with concern without daring to turn around as long as he kept the Dalek puppet busy.

"I've definitely been better. If I wasn't able to use the Vortex to heal myself, I'd be very, very dead right now," Clara said.

"I'm sorry, Clara. I should have protected you better," the Doctor said sadly.

"Stop that. It wasn't your fault. You're doing very well at destroying those nanogenes, but you're not destroying them fast enough. Let me help. I remember those things from when I was Oswin. I actually worked out a way to destroy them back then. Being a Dalek at the time probably helped," Clara said.

Clara's eyes glowed with the power of the Vortex as she incinerated all of the nanogenes inside of the puppet's body at once, and the woman fell over with a low moan. The Doctor quickly checked her with his sonic and said, "She's still alive."

"Of course she is. I just freed her. What do you think I am?" Clara asked in a hurt voice.

"I didn't mean that I thought you killed her. I thought that she might have already been dead when she was converted," the Doctor said.

"Sorry, Doctor. I guess I'm more afraid of losing my humanity than I thought. I'm kind of touchy about it," Clara admitted.

"I told you that I won't let that happen, Clara," the Doctor said firmly.

"Doctor? You're not the Doctor. The Doctor that I know looked completely different and dressed a whole lot better. Are you his brother or something? You do have a screwdriver like his, and you even have a blue box like his. Are there several of you going around with similar looking equipment or something? Is it like a boy band of time traveling aliens?" Christina asked.

Clara started laughing as she said, "The Doctor in a boy band? I'd pay good money to see that."

"I'll have you know that I have a very good singing voice. I also can play the recorder and use spoons to tap out a nice little melody. I was better at that when I was Scottish though," the Doctor said pouting.

Clara laughed as she knew that he would be Scottish again someday and the Doctor said, "What? You don't think I'm musical? Is that it?"

"It's nothing, Chin Boy. Just a private joke. Of course you're musical. The question is are you any good at it? I know a lot of people hated the 'music' that came out of your recorder back in the day," Clara said giggling.

"You never did answer my question, whoever you are. Who are you and how do you know me?" Christina asked.

"I am the Doctor, Lady Christina. I'm the same one that just freed you from your handcuffs except that I changed my appearance and got a much cooler sense of style later on. My people do this thing where they can change their appearance and become a new person when they're dying in order to survive death. I traveled back in time to get that glowing cube in the seat next to you. Once I get that, I'll be out of your life forever," the Doctor said.

"You mean that you're still not going to take me along? You've obviously got a new companion now so what's your excuse not to let me travel with you this time since you've gotten over the whole hang-up you had before about that," Christina said in an angry voice.

"I'm sorry, Christina. It's just that I have Clara now, and I really don't want anyone else," the Doctor said.

"Oh, that's just wonderful. How great for you. I guess I can't hope to compete with Miss Glowing Eyes over there. I'm just a thief so I'm not good enough for you. Is that all?" Christina said in a bitter voice.

"You're certainly taking a face changing time traveling alien and a woman with glowing eyes in stride I must say. Not much fazes you, does it?" Clara asked.

"I'm driving a flying double-decker bus. What do you think?" Christina said suddenly smiling.

"Doctor, why don't we take her along? I told you that I'd love to have another girl come with us so that I'd have someone to keep me human. Christina seems like she'd be a good choice to me," Clara said.

"Really?" Christina asked in a hopeful voice.

"Clara, I like Christina but she probably wouldn't work out. She's too arrogant and she always thinks that she's right. She automatically tries to take charge of every situation because she thinks that only she's the best one to lead. She never listens to what anyone tells her and insists on doing everything her own way. She's also an enormous flirt and loves kissing people. Plus she's a thief," the Doctor said.

"No wonder you like her. She sounds exactly like you. You could be describing yourself," Clara pointed out with a giggle and caused Christina to start laughing out loud.

"That's not true. I only stole something once and I never regretted it," the Doctor said smiling at her.

"Neither did I," Clara said.

"Please, Doctor. Please let me come along. I promise that I'll change. I won't steal anymore, and I'll listen to whatever you say and follow your lead. Please. There's nothing for me in this world. I want to travel and see the stars. Please," Christina said in a completely serious voice as she landed the bus in what she hoped was a place where it wouldn't be seen by the police.

"Come on, Doctor. Let her come," Clara said.

The Doctor hesitated and then looked at the sad pleading look on Christina's face. He did like her. She was basically a decent person deep down. He saw that when she helped him save the people who had been on this bus. She had also been upset when the Tritovores had died even though she had barely known them. She was everything that he usually looked for in a companion, and he had to admit that he regretted not taking her along with him when he went to Mars shortly after that. He always wondered if she could have talked him out of going too far there. Then again he doubted anyone but Rose or Donna could have gotten through to him at that point because he was distraught at losing both of them at once then.

"Alright but don't wander off, and always do everything that I say," the Doctor said smiling.

"You don't have to do any of that. I never do," Clara said.

"I wasn't planning on it either," Christina admitted.

"Oi!" the Doctor protested.

"Oh, don't complain so much. I will keep the rest of my promise to you. I won't steal. I won't need to. I only did it for the thrill, and traveling with you is thrill enough believe me," Christina said as she drew closer and closer to the Doctor.

Clara began to get very uncomfortable as Christina got right into the Doctor's face, and then to her horror she put her arms around him and kissed him. The Doctor quickly pulled away from her and said, "No. If you're going to stay, that's not going to happen."

"You seemed to like it before," Christina asked surprised.

"It was literally a different man back then, and I didn't have a girlfriend. Now I do," the Doctor said as he looked at Clara.

Christina's eyes widened in horror as she looked at Clara and said, "I am so sorry. I didn't know. You're not going to change your mind now are you?"

Clara and the Doctor looked at one another for a moment and then came to a wordless decision as Christina looked at them expectantly.

"You can still come as long as you never do that again. That also means no flirting or even batting your eyes at him, got it?" Clara said.

"Got it. I promise that I won't even look at him funny. I really didn't know. I thought maybe you were just friends," Christina apologized.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it," Clara said forgiving her.

"He's quite a good kisser though, isn't he? You wouldn't know it to look at him with that huge chin and that horrible looking outfit," Christina said winking at Clara.

"Oi! My clothes are cool," the Doctor said.

"Christina, I think that I'm going to like you," Clara said smiling.

That was when the woman who had been a Dalek puppet finally woke up and said, "What's going on? Where am I?"

"You're dreaming, Anna Stevens. This is a weird, crazy dream about flying buses, insane talking pepper pots, time traveling aliens, and women with glowing eyes. Go back to sleep and the next time that you wake you'll be right back in your own home just as if you'd never left it," Clara said as her eyes began to glow.

Anna immediately disappeared and Christina looked at Clara in disbelief as she asked, "How did you do that? Where did she go?"

"I sent her back home just like I said by sending her through the Vortex. She had been taken from a ship and changed on a trip to another planet. I just sent her back home safe and sound. She'll just tell everyone that she overslept and never boarded that ship," Clara said.

"How did you protect her from the Vortex?" the Doctor asked surprised.

"I do have shields you know. I used them on her instead of my other self for a minute," Clara explained.

"What are you talking about? You're talking like you're some kind of spaceship or something," Christina asked confused.

"I kind of am. I'm the human form of the Doctor's blue box. I'm also a real live human girl just like you. It's a long story," Clara said.

"You'll have to explain it to me later along with what this thing is," Christina said as she picked up the cube containing the Vortex.

"No!" both the Doctor and Clara shouted at once.

Christina started to scream in pain as her eyes lit up with the power of the Vortex. She started crying as she said, "Help me! Please help me!"

"Let it go, Christina. Drop it now or it'll burn you up," the Doctor warned.

"I can't. It won't let me," Christina said as she tried to throw the box away and couldn't.

"The Daleks must have put a failsafe in it. Once someone touches it they can't let it go. They didn't want anyone changing their minds about using it," Clara realized.

"It's going to kill her," the Doctor said.

"I can see things so clearly now. I was so wrong to steal. I've made so many mistakes in my life. I was finally on the right path now though. I could have helped you. We would have become good friends. That's all over with now. I know what I have to do. The power itself has shown me how to save the planet. I have to use the power of this cube to destroy myself and take it along with me. That's the only way, Doctor, Clara. I just want to say thank you for offering to let me go with you. That meant a lot to me. You'll never know how much. Goodbye," Christina said as she began to glow brighter and brighter.

"Christina, no!" the Doctor shouted in fear.

"My Wolf, help me. If you can hear me, please help me," Clara whispered.

Suddenly the Doctor looked on in shock as a glowing figure appeared behind Christina and incinerated the cube with a gesture. Then the figure drained all of the energy out of her. As Christina fell unconscious to the floor, the figure stared straight at the Doctor for a moment, and the Doctor thought that he could see it smile. Then it suddenly disappeared.

The Doctor immediately rushed to Christina's side and smiled in relief as his sonic told her that she was going to be alright. Clara helped him pick her up and carry her into the TARDIS as he asked her, "Who was that? They looked at me as if they knew me for a second."

"I think you know who it was, Doctor," Clara said.

"Is she happy?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, very. Trust me. She's okay. I've been in contact with her the whole time since you left her back at Bad Wolf Bay. If she hadn't wanted to go, I never would have left her there no matter what you wanted," Clara said.

"She still has the power? I thought I took it out of her," the Doctor said.

"You took most of it out but not all of it. She had already been changed, Doctor. She was still the Bad Wolf even afterwards. She just never told you because she didn't want you to treat her any differently," Clara explained.

"I guess I'm not only one who keeps things from people," the Doctor said.

"I'm sorry. It was Idris not me. I didn't even know it until I needed to call on her for help. I'm only allowed to know information from the TARDIS' memory as I need it, remember?" Clara said.

"I wasn't blaming you, Clara. I was just thinking that I should have realized when she seemed to know things that she shouldn't. There were many things that I didn't say to her that I should have," the Doctor said sadly.

"She knows, Doctor. She knows and she loves you too. Now she'll have a part of you with her for the rest of her life," Clara said.

The Doctor smiled as he felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Then he dematerialized and left the bus behind. He laid Christina in the Captain's Chair and tried to make her comfortable as he waited for her to regain consciousness.

"Do you think that the Daleks will try to destroy the Earth again?" the Doctor asked Clara.

"I have a feeling that they're about to be heavily discouraged from doing it anymore," Clara said with a huge grin.

"What do you know?" the Doctor asked.

"Let's just say that they're getting paid a visit by a certain mutual acquaintance of ours," Clara said.

Back on Skaro, Davros screeched in surprise and anger as every piece of the Vortex that had been captured by the Daleks suddenly disappeared and the machines that they had used to capture them instantly disintegrated.

"What is happening?" Davros said.

Then the words 'Bad Wolf' appeared all over the planet and the Daleks all shivered in fear. They knew that this was a clear warning. They would never try this particular plan ever again.

"Good work, Rose," Clara whispered to herself.

Meanwhile back on Pete's World, Rose Tyler heard the voice of her Doctor ask, "Are you okay, Rose? You just seemed to blank out there for a few minutes."

She kissed him and said in a reassuring tone, "I'm just fine. I was just thinking about an old friend."

"Anyone I know?" the Metacrisis asked.

"I was just wondering if the other you was happy or not. You know what? I think he is. Don't ask me how I know that but I do. I know that I am. I couldn't be happier," Rose said as she kissed her Doctor again.

Back in the Doctor's TARDIS, Christina woke up and smiled with joy as she said, "I'm still alive. How?"

"Let's just say that I called upon an old friend to help you and leave it at that. Everything's okay now, Christina," Clara said.

Christina looked at her in disbelief as she said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a little weird. You may be even weirder than Bow Tie Boy over there, and that's saying something."

"Ha! She got you! Now who's strange? I think we all know now," the Doctor said in a triumphant voice as he did his giraffe dance around the Console Room.

"Yes, we certainly do, Chin Boy," Clara said laughing at him.

"I take it back, Clara. He's still stranger than you are by a mile," Christina said.

"Thank you, Christina. That's the nicest thing that you could have said to me," Clara said.

Christina looked at them both like they were mad, but she couldn't say that she really cared. Sometimes she was just a bit mad herself. She had a feeling that they were kindred spirits and that she was going to fit in here just fine.

**Next: The Doctor, Clara, and Christina pay a visit to Sarah Jane Smith and wind up getting involved in yet another adventure alongside her as a murderous robot made out of living metal from the Doctor and Sarah Jane's past returns from the dead.**


	6. A Reunion of Old Friends

CHAPTER 6

I do not own Doctor Who or the Sarah Jane Adventures and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews! **

A REUNION OF OLD FRIENDS

"So where to today, Sexy?" the Doctor asked Clara.

Christina snickered and Clara's face turned bright red as she said in a low voice, "Don't call me that in front of Christina."

"Oh. So we don't do that in front of other people?" the Doctor asked sounding confused.

"No, Doctor, we don't. Please, please do not ever call me Sexy when we're out in public. If you do, I swear I'll make sure that our next destination is Skaro right in the middle of the Parliament of the Daleks," Clara threatened.

"So? They don't remember me anymore anyway thanks to you," the Doctor said smugly.

"I'd just have to tell them then, wouldn't I?" Clara said with an evil smile.

"You wouldn't dare," the Doctor said.

"Call me Sexy in public and you'll find out," Clara said.

"Why is it that even when you threaten me with imminent death that I still find you so irresistible, my Impossible Girl?" the Doctor asked as he put his arms around her and gave her a tender kiss.

"Probably because you're just a tad bit demented," Christina joked.

The two of them looked at her in shock when she spoke as if they had forgotten that she was even there. Christina laughed at them good-naturedly as she said, "You two are so cute together. You're just completely lost in your own little world whenever you're with one another."

Both the Doctor and Clara blushed this time and became suddenly very quiet as Christina grinned at them. She had already realized even in the short time that she had been here that Clara was very good for the Doctor, and she was glad that he had found her. This Doctor was so different from the one that she had known before and that wasn't just because he looked completely different. Her first Doctor has been so sad and seemed so lonely. This one had some sad moments too when he thought that no one was watching him, but he seemed to be so much happier and full of life than the other one had been especially whenever Clara was around. She was so happy for him and wasn't afraid to poke a little fun at him just to let him know that she cared about him in her own way.

She found that an odd thought. She barely knew the Doctor and yet she already cared about him. Maybe it was because he wasn't judgmental. He knew who and what she was and had still given her a second chance by letting her come with him. Not many people would have done that.

Maybe it was also because they were both birds of a feather and were so similar to one another just as Clara had pointed out. She just knew that she already considered the Doctor a friend. If Clara hadn't been there, she probably would have tried to have been much more than that to him. She would never do that now though because she liked Clara and knew that he thought the world of her.

She was beginning to like Clara herself even if the idea of a woman that was also the consciousness of a bigger on the inside time machine was still a very bizarre notion to her. It helped though that Clara was in so many ways just an ordinary girl. If she didn't know that Clara was the TARDIS, she never would have guessed it since unlike the Doctor she didn't act alien at all not even the slightest bit.

Well, not most of the time anyone. Sometimes her alien nature poked through and showed itself for brief moments, but it was always gone just as quickly as it came. She knew that it was because Clara wanted to stay as human as possible and so far she was doing a very good job of that in her opinion.

"So where are we going to, Clara?" Christina said as she tried to make them both feel more comfortable.

She wanted them to feel free to flirt around her and otherwise just be themselves. It was their ship after all (literally in Clara's case since she was the ship), and she didn't want to make them uncomfortable just by being here. She just wanted to a good friend who they would feel perfectly relaxed around at all times. She didn't want them to be embarrassed so she was trying her best to put them at ease as much as possible.

Clara smiled at her and said, "Well, I have a little surprise for the Doctor as a matter of fact. I'm taking him to meet an old friend of his, Sarah Jane Smith. Well, she's an old friend of mine too even though she doesn't know me."

"What?" Christina asked in confusion.

"She used to travel with the Doctor. She knows me as the TARDIS but not as Clara. Well, that's not entirely true. She may recognize me from that one time that one of my echoes met her and helped her save the Doctor from the Rani," Clara said.

"You never told me that you met Sarah Jane," the Doctor said surprised.

"Oh, it was a long time ago before I was even born. So it wasn't really me at all who met her even though it was since it was one of my echoes. It completely skipped my mind until just now," Clara said.

"I always love the conversations that you and the Doctor have, Clara. They're always perfectly understandable and not confusing in the slightest," Christina said sarcastically.

"Sorry, Christina. I know that listening to him talk is confusing enough. I don't need to start doing it to you too. I think that you've done a remarkable job of keeping up with us so far though. I mean you haven't gone off screaming into the night just yet so that shows how tough that you are," Clara said as she smiled at her appreciatively.

"I'm not going anywhere. I like it here," Christina said firmly.

"Good. I need another human here to keep me sane especially traveling with Chin Boy there," Clara said.

"Oi!" the Doctor said as he began to pout.

"Oh, hush up!" Clara said as she kissed him.

The Doctor began to smile like an idiot as soon as Clara pulled away. He continued to walk around as if he was in a daze even as the TARDIS landed and the doors opened.

"He's really got it bad, doesn't he?" Christina whispered to Clara with a giggle.

"Yes, I know. I swear that I'll only use my power over him for good though," Clara said laughing with her.

The three of them went outside to find that they had landed right in the middle of Sarah Jane's attic. Mr. Smith, Sarah Jane's living computer, quickly appeared out of the secret compartment in the wall that he sometimes hid inside and greeted them.

"Hello, Doctor. Sarah Jane's not here at the moment, but I can try to reach her for you," Mr. Smith said.

"That's okay, Mr. Smith. Just tell me where she is, and I'll go to her myself in the TARDIS. It's not that important anyway. I don't think. Or is it?" the Doctor said as he looked at Clara questioningly.

Clara smiled at him as she said, "I promise that I just wanted to let you see her again. Honest."

"Liar," Christina whispered to her with a smile.

Clara looked at her in surprise. How did she know?

Christina just smiled at her but said nothing.

"It's okay, Christina. I already know that she's lying. The Old Girl never takes me anywhere without a good reason. She admitted it herself once," the Doctor said as he noticed the looks that the two of them exchanged with one another.

"I told you never to call me Old Girl. Do that again and I really will strand you on Skaro. I think Christina and I could get along just fine without you," Clara said in anger.

The Doctor started to laugh at her until he could see that she wasn't smiling. She had a sad look on her face as she said, "I'm sorry. I don't like lying to you. I just wanted you to enjoy yourself for a while before we were plunged into yet another new adventure."

"It's alright, Clara. I know. Don't worry about it. Besides going into new adventures is how I enjoy myself. You should know that by now," the Doctor said.

"Don't you want to just relax and have a normal day every once in a while though? Just a regular day where you could just be a normal person for a while? I know that I do," Clara said giving him a look full of meaning.

The Doctor knew that this was the part of her that was Clara talking now. She wanted to have a moment to relax before getting caught up in yet another life and death struggle again so soon after the last one. He smiled because he was perfectly willing to give that to her. He knew that he would do anything for her. All she had to do was ask.

"Interesting. I have been scanning your party since the moment that you arrived here, Doctor, and while one of your companions is human the other is only partly human. The other part of her DNA is of unknown alien origin. Are you aware of this?" Mr. Smith suddenly said.

"I wasn't until recently. I'm aware of it now though. Don't worry. She's definitely on our side. I least I think she is," the Doctor joked.

"Shut up, Chin Boy," Clara said as she playfully punched him in the arm.

"You're certain that she can be trusted and is not violent?" Mr. Smith asked making Clara glare at him in anger.

"Of course I'm not violent. Whatever gave you that idea? The nerve! Tell him that I'm not violent!" Clara said as she glared at the Doctor now as well.

"Believe me. She's completely trustworthy, Mr. Smith. As for not being violent, that I'm not so sure about especially when she's giving me the look of death like that," the Doctor said trying hard not to laugh.

"Doctor," Clara said in a warning tone.

"She's perfectly sweet most of the time, Mr. Smith. The sweetest girl who ever lived," the Doctor said meaning it.

Clara smiled at him and gave him a tender kiss as her previous anger completely disappeared now.

"I think you're sweet too. Occasionally," Clara said grinning at him.

"You're both being so sweet right now that I might just throw up," Christina joked.

"Oh, be quiet. You know you love us," Clara said winking at her.

"Yeah, I have to admit that I do. I haven't known you that long but you're definitely growing on me," Christina said.

"You make us sound like a fungus," Clara said frowning.

"Sarah Jane has just returned," Mr. Smith announced.

"Good because I really didn't like the direction that this conversation was going in," Christina said.

"Well, it's not like it would have been a bad thing even if you were comparing us to a fungus. I knew a very friendly sentient fungus once. It was very brave and once helped me defeat an invasion of Earth by the Vardans. Yes, I'd be proud to compared to good old Fungy," the Doctor said.

"Fungy?" Christina mouthed in disbelief.

"It's not like defeating the Vardans is all that hard. They're the worst excuse for invaders that I've ever seen and that's saying something. Stormageddon could defeat them all by himself with a slingshot," Clara said laughing.

"Oh, Craig! Good old Craig! I haven't thought about him since the last time I was about to die. Can we go see him again after we get done with this latest adventure, Sexy? Please!" the Doctor pleaded as he became filled with excitement.

"I told you not to call me that in public!" Clara said with a sigh.

"Sorry. Can we go though? Please!" the Doctor said

Clara laughed as she said, "Of course we can. Anything for my Chinny."

"I can see how having been a nanny could come in handy sometimes with this version of the Doctor," Christina said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the Doctor asked pouting.

He was interrupted as Sarah Jane came into the attic and looked at him in surprise.

"Doctor! It's so nice to see you again. So what's wrong?" Sarah Jane asked smiling at him.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked confused.

"Something's wrong. It always is. You never come to see me unless there's trouble," Sarah Jane said.

"I resent that, Sarah Jane. I can pay you a visit just for fun sometimes you know," the Doctor said.

"Name one time that's ever happened," Sarah Jane challenged him.

"Well, there was . . . no. Wait, there was . . . no, not then either. Well, it could happen sometime you know. I like seeing you, Sarah Jane. I could come sometime just to do that," the Doctor protested.

"Have you come just to do that?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Not exactly," the Doctor said.

"I thought so," Sarah Jane said smiling in triumph.

"The TARDIS brought us here a day before any trouble would start though just so that he could spend a little time with you without both of you having to run for your lives for once," Clara said.

Sarah Jane looked at her strangely for a moment and then said, "I'm sorry for staring, but you look so familiar. Have we met before?"

"Sarah Jane, this is Clara Oswald. She's my . . .?" the Doctor said and then paused because he wasn't sure how to describe his relationship to her now.

"I'm his wife or I soon will be anyway," Clara said shocking everyone especially the Doctor.

"You're engaged?" Sarah Jane asked with equal parts of surprise and delight.

"Apparently," the Doctor said as he gave Clara a questioning look that she just smiled at.

"Congratulations!" Sarah Jane said as she hugged the Doctor even as the Doctor mouthed "What are you doing?" behind her back to Clara.

Clara continued to smile at him but said nothing.

"It's so nice to meet you. You'll have to tell me all about yourself," Sarah Jane said.

Christina cleared her throat as she said, "I'm Christina. I travel with them if anyone cares."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you. I'm just so happy for him," Sarah Jane said to Christina.

"Yes, this whole marriage thing was kind of sudden. It's come as a shock to all of us especially the Doctor," Christina said giggling.

"What do you mean? Didn't he propose?" Sarah Jane asked.

"No, I did actually. Just now," Clara said.

"Really?" the Doctor asked.

"Really. If you'll have me," Clara said as she looked at him with uncertainty.

"Of course I will. My Clara," the Doctor said as he took her in his arms and kissed her.

Sarah Jane just shook her head at him. The Doctor never did do anything like a normal person so why should his marriage be any different?

"Was he this weird when you traveled with him too?" Christina asked.

"Oh, I could tell you stories that you'd never believe," Sarah Jane said.

"I think I'd believe anything at this point. Tell me everything that you know," Christina said eagerly.

"It's going to be Rose and Sarah Jane all over again, isn't it?" the Doctor said as he held Clara while watching Sarah Jane and Christina talk.

"Nah, this time they won't be any fighting. They'll just be making fun of you straight out. I think I'll go join them," Clara said laughing.

"Thanks. I only just became engaged to you, and you've already turned against me," the Doctor protested.

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's all in good fun, Theta," Clara said grinning.

"Theta? That's the first time that you've ever called me that," the Doctor said surprised.

"We're getting married now so I can't keep calling you Doctor, can I? It's much too impersonal. I thought I'd try Theta out. You don't like it?" Clara asked.

"I don't know yet. I'll get back to you on that. It's definitely better than calling me Chin Boy though," the Doctor said.

"Oh, I'll still call you that. I just thought I'd try out Theta too. Maybe I'll just call you something else entirely though. How do you feel about Doctor Chin?" Clara asked laughing.

"Theta's fine, Clara. I definitely prefer Theta," the Doctor said quickly.

"Somehow I thought you'd agree," Clara said as she kissed him with a playful smile on her face.

Now the Doctor knew why Clara had insisted on bringing him here a day early. She had wanted to propose to him and to make it a special occasion where he could have one of his closest friends on hand to celebrate it along with him. He would always be grateful to her for that.

Later that night after everyone had gone to sleep even the Doctor for once, Clara walked out of the TARDIS and into the attic. She just stood there in silence alone in her own thoughts as she leaned against the outer shell of her other self fully aware how odd that was. She couldn't sleep. She hadn't slept since she had found out that she was the TARDIS as a matter of fact. It still bothered her no matter how much she tried to act otherwise to the Doctor.

"Who are you?" Sarah Jane said as she suddenly came into the attic.

"What do you mean?" Clara asked as she attempted to bluff her way out of having to reveal herself to Sarah Jane. She wanted to be thought of as Clara not the TARDIS.

"I remember you now. You were there when the Rani tried to bring the Moon crashing into the Earth back when I was still traveling with the Doctor. You helped me save his life even though he never saw you and you want to know the funny thing about it? You still look the same. So I have to ask you again. Who are you?" Sarah Jane asked as she looked at Clara with suspicion.

"Whoever she was, she wasn't me," Clara said even as she tried not to smile at her memories of that day. That version of her Doctor had been the one who had been all teeth and curls.

"Oh, I think that she was. She looked and acted just like you. She even had the same name. I looked you up and you are a real person according to all records. What's funny is that there have been several Clara Oswalds throughout history and from what I've been able to find out about them they're all just like you. In fact, at least one of them is a dead ringer and she's been dead since the nineteenth century," Sarah Jane said as she showed Clara a picture of her barmaid/governess echo.

"I know. I've seen her grave. It's very creepy literally walking on your own grave," Clara said with a sigh as she finally started to open up to Sarah Jane.

"Who are you?" Sarah Jane asked yet again.

"You and I go way back, Sarah Jane Smith. I've known you since the day that you first met my Doctor and claimed to be your own aunt. You took a nice little trip in me to the past that day, didn't you? That was just your first of many encounters with a Sontaran," Clara said smiling at her.

Sarah Jane looked floored as she said, "Wait a minute. You're saying you're the TARDIS?"

"I prefer to be called Clara. That's who I really am not the Old Cow," Clara said.

"Didn't you just insult yourself?" Sarah Jane asked as she smiled at her in amusement.

"Yeah but I'm allowed. I know just how much of an Old Cow I can be sometimes better than anyone except for Theta," Clara said as she smiled back at her.

"I thought that you were some alien out to get the Doctor somehow. It wouldn't be the first time that someone married someone under false pretenses," Sarah Jane said as her mood darkened.

"I'm sorry about what happened with your own wedding. At least we were able to rescue you. As if I would ever let anything happen to my Sarah Jane," Clara said as looked at her fondly.

"It's just so odd. You seem to shift from Clara to the TARDIS and back again at the drop of a hat," Sarah Jane observed.

Clara became upset as she said, "Yes, I know. It's very unnerving, Sarah Jane. Sometimes I'm not even sure who I am anymore. Once I was just an ordinary girl who wanted to travel the world. Then I met the Doctor, and my whole life was changed forever. It wasn't weird enough to be able to travel anywhere in time and space and then to find out that I've lived a billion lives in a billion times and places. Oh, no. It had to get even worse than that when I find out I'm the bloody TARDIS given a human form. Was Clara just a lie? I like to think that she wasn't. I like to think that Clara is real despite all of the weirdness surrounding her. I'm just not so sure anymore. I want to be her though. Even now, I want to be as normal as possible. Isn't that a kick, Sarah Jane? The TARDIS who thought that she was a human."

Sarah Jane embraced her as she said, "I think you are very much human, Clara Oswald. If you weren't, thinking that you weren't Clara anymore wouldn't be bothering you this much."

She looked at the circles under Clara's eyes and said, "When's the last time that you had any sleep?"

"I haven't slept since I found who I really am. It turns out that I don't need it anymore since I gained Vortex abilities," Clara said.

"You can't stop worrying about losing who you are, can you?" Sarah Jane asked knowingly.

"No, I can't. I just want to stay me. I just want to be Clara," Clara admitted as she started to tear up.

"I don't think that you ever have to worry about that," Sarah Jane said.

"You don't understand. She's in my thoughts. Her personality and memories poke through into mine all the time now. I'm not sure even now if it's really me saying this to you or not. I'm not even sure if Clara even existed at all or was she just a joke all along? Maybe I'm just a fake personality created to fill in the blanks until the TARDIS felt like it was time to claim this body as its own. It really bothers me," Clara said.

"Clara, I believe that you are real. Just as real a person as everyone else is. Would a fake be crying? Would a fake be this upset?" Sarah Jane pointed out.

"I suppose not," Clara admitted.

"There you are then," Sarah Jane said.

"This is why I always liked you the best, Sarah Jane. You and my Wolf," Clara admitted as she gave her a small hug.

"Wolf? Oh, you mean Rose. I'm in good company then," Sarah Jane said with a smile.

"It's always amazing to me how you can be so wise when you haven't even lived a single lifetime yet. You make this 'Old Girl' feel so stupid in comparison," Clara admitted.

"I'm not that wise. I think maybe I've just had a lot more experience than most thanks to the life that I've led," Sarah Jane said.

"What a life that's been too. Even after the Doctor left you, you still kept fighting the good fight and protecting the Earth. You're still doing it even now. I'm so proud of you. Then again I wouldn't have expected any less from you. Sorry about putting you back down in the wrong place that day that we left you by the way. That was his doing not mine. You did get to meet a very sweet dog who was just as lost as you were that day though, didn't you? You adopted him if memory serves," Clara said.

"You're the TARDIS again, aren't you?" Sarah Jane asked.

"For a moment I was, yeah. Do you see what I have to deal with?" Clara asked.

"It's going to be alright, Clara. You're strong. I can already tell. You'll hold onto yourself. I know you will," Sarah Jane said.

"Thank you," Clara said.

Then the whole house shook, and the two women could hear the sound of splintering wood coming from downstairs. Clara knew that it was time now.

Sarah Jane started to go downstairs to see what was going on, but Clara instantly grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"No, stay up here! That's an old enemy of yours paying you a visit. You're much safer inside of my shell. Come on," Clara said as she dragged Sarah Jane into the TARDIS.

As soon as they closed the TARDIS doors, they heard the same crashing sounds that they had heard downstairs in the attic now. The voice of Mr. Smith soon came over the monitor with a tone of concern in it.

"Sarah Jane, are you in the TARDIS?" Mr. Smith asked.

"Yes, I'm here. What's going on out there?" Sarah Jane asked.

"There's a hostile unidentified robotic life form tearing apart the attic. I am currently in hiding, but I can attempt to engage the intruder if you wish," Mr. Smith said.

Clara violently shook her head so Sarah Jane said, "No, Mr. Smith. Stay where you are. Don't try to fight the robot unless you have to defend yourself."

"Understood. Stay safe, Sarah Jane," Mr. Smith said as he signed off.

Clara gestured at the monitor, and suddenly the outside of the TARDIS could now be seen. The two women could see the intruder now for the first time, and Sarah Jane gasped in recognition.

"It's K1, the robot that The Scientific Reform Society tried to use to take over the world. He's dead though. The Doctor destroyed him a long time ago," Sarah Jane said.

The Scientific Reform Society was a secret group of scientists who had decided that only they were worthy of ruling the world due to their intelligence, and they had had K1 steal the codes for the nuclear missiles of the United States, Russia, and China in order to blackmail the world into giving supreme power over to them. Luckily their plan failed thanks to a certain meddling Time Lord of Clara's acquaintance.

Even when the day was saved from Nuclear Armageddon though, things weren't over with quite yet. K1 had been forced to kill in order to get the codes, and this had gone against his programming which forbade him to kill. This caused the robot to go mad, and he went on a rampage taking Sarah Jane, who had shown him compassion, along with him. The Doctor had been forced to destroy the robot which was made out of living metal with a metal virus that had been specifically designed to destroy that kind of metal.

Sarah Jane had thought that the robot was long gone even though she had seen the head of The Reform Society, Hilda Winters, one more time since then when she had tried to kill her in revenge many years after that. She had been told not long after that that Hilda had died. Now she was beginning to wonder about that.

The TARDIS itself began to shake now as K1 started to shake it. Clara and Sarah Jane both had to brace themselves against the console to keep from being thrown around the Console Room.

"What is going on out there, Clara?" the Doctor asked as he and Christina came into the Console Room with concerned looks on their faces when the TARDIS finally stopped shaking.

"See for yourself, Theta," Clara said as she pointed to the monitor.

"Theta? Is that your real name?" Christina asked eagerly.

"It's my old nickname from the Academy. Oh, look. It's K1. I remember him. Oh, that really brings me back. Those were the good old days when I ran around with that scarf that Madame Nostradamus gave me. I used to love that scarf. I can't wear it now though. It would clash with the rest of my cool gear. Still it does make me want to wear it again at least once just for nostalgia's sake," the Doctor said as he looked at the monitor with a huge grin on his face.

"Doctor, aren't you even in the slightest bit concerned that there's a killer robot after us?" Christina asked in disbelief.

"Nah, I can handle it. I think I still have some of that metal virus that I used to destroy the last one with here somewhere. Now where did I put it? I put it in a special canister just in case I ever had to use it again. Where is it? Did I leave it in my other coat?" the Doctor said as he started to search through his pockets.

"Theta, we don't have time for this. K1, if it even is the same robot, came after Sarah Jane again after all of these years for a reason. We have to find out what that reason is," Clara said.

"I'd rather find the virus to destroy it first just in case we need it and then ask it some questions," the Doctor said.

"I'm all for that," Christina said.

"Why don't you ask me your questions instead, Doctor? That is you, isn't it? My, how you've changed," a familiar voice said over the monitor.

"Hilda Winters. So you are still alive," Sarah Jane said.

"Of course I am. I faked my death after you defeated me the last time. I went underground until I could find the right time to kill you. Now is that time. What luck that the Doctor is here as well. It's almost as if it's meant to be. You see I found Professor Kettlewell's original plans for K1 and the living metal that he was made out of and I had them both remade. This time I removed the weakness that Kettlewell left him last time. No virus will defeat him this time around, Doctor. This new K1 is invincible and first I will use him to kill the two of you. Then I will use him to finally take over the world for us," Hilda said.

"Us? Do you mean that the Scientific Reform Society is still around? That was forty years ago. Don't you people ever give up?" the Doctor asked in disbelief.

"Not them, Doctor. I am a part of a new group now. A group with much larger goals. I will use K1 to create a new golden age for mankind. An age where science and reason rule. It will lead Earth into a glorious new future, and it will all be thanks to the Divergence," Hilda said with a huge smile on her face.

"The Divergence? No, that can't be. They're still trapped in their own little pocket universe where Rassilon left them. That universe should still be in his dungeon on Gallifrey. Wherever Gallifrey is now," the Doctor said.

"Apparently they got back out again. At least they did in one universe anyway," Clara said.

"What is it that you know about them?" the Doctor asked.

"Only that they're going to make life very, very difficult for all versions of you everywhere very soon now. They want you dead so that the Time Lords can never return. Not only in this universe either. They want you dead in every universe so that no version of the Time Lords will exist anywhere to be able to stop them," Clara said.

"Let them take a number. So you're willing to sell out your whole planet to the Divergence, Miss Winters?" the Doctor said in a disgusted voice.

"They helped me find the plans to K1 and gave me the funding to remake him. All that they asked for in return was that I kill you. I was all too willing to do that. You might as well come out now, Doctor. Sooner or later, K1 will get in there and destroy you. You should just get it over with and at least die with some dignity still intact," Hilda taunted him.

"No one gets in here unless I say so," the Doctor said defiantly.

Clara cleared her throat and the Doctor quickly amended his earlier statement as he said, "Okay, not unless you say so, Old Girl."

"I told you not to call me that!" Clara shouted.

"If that is so, then I'll have to find an alternative means to get you out then, won't I? It's a good thing that I've already thought of that, isn't it?" Hilda said.

Sarah Jane's heart fell as she said, "What have you done?"

"I merely had K1 pay your son a visit at the university before he came here to see you. Don't worry. He hasn't been harmed. He won't be either as long as you come out of the blue box and let K1 kill you. Here let me show you what I mean," Hilda said as the camera pulled back and showed her holding a gun to Luke Smith's head.

Luke was tied to a chair and had his mouth taped over. He looked at the camera in horror as his eyes silently begged his mother not to go through with what Hilda wanted.

"Now you must make a choice, Miss Smith. Come outside and let my robot kill you or be forced to watch while I kill your son. What will it be, hmm? Decisions, decisions," Hilda said with a smirk on her face.

**Next: Our heroes are trapped between a rock and a hard place it seems. Or are they? It seems that Clara may have one last trick that even the Doctor doesn't know about yet up her sleeve. Will it help to save the day or is Luke finished?**


	7. Clara's New Trick

CHAPTER 7

I do not own Doctor Who or the Sarah Jane Adventures and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews! **

CLARA'S NEW TRICK

"So what is your decision, Miss Smith? Do you save your son or yourself? I'll give you one minute to answer from the time I quit speaking. After that, Sky is going to be an only child," Hilda threatened.

Sarah Jane's eyes became even larger as she realized the hidden threat in Hilda's words.

"Oh, yes. Did I forget to mention that I not only know who Sky is, but I also know exactly where she is as well? How very careless of me. Just in case you think I'm lying, let me show her to you," Hilda said.

Suddenly they could see a house that Sarah Jane recognized as belonging to the parents of Sky's best friend. This was where she was staying for the night. Sarah Jane's heart sank even further. She couldn't believe that this was happening.

"I'm showing this to you to impress on you just how serious I am being here, Miss Smith. I have more than one K-1 this time you see. One of them is currently in your attic, and the other is standing outside the house where your daughter is right now just waiting for my order to strike," Hilda said with a huge smile on her face.

Sarah Jane instantly started for the door of the TARDIS, but it wouldn't open. She turned around to protest just in time to see Clara disappear right in front of her eyes.

"What?!" Sarah Jane asked in shock.

"Clara?" the Doctor said equally as shocked.

"It looks like Clara had a little trick up her sleeve that no one knew about," Christina said laughing.

"Time is up, Miss Smith. Time to say goodbye to poor Luke here," Hilda said.

Hilda began to pull the trigger on her gun when Clara suddenly appeared next to her. She gestured at the gun, and her eyes flashed with golden energy as the gun completely disintegrated in Hilda's hand.

"What are you?" Hilda asked in terror as she backed away from Clara.

"I would have been your worst nightmare if you had killed that boy. As it is, I'm still not too pleased with you. The only thing keeping me from killing you right now is because the part of me that is Clara isn't allowing it," Clara said in a furious voice as her hands glowed with energy.

She gestured at Luke, and the ropes binding him instantly disintegrated. Luke jumped up and pulled the tape from his mouth as he looked at Clara in awe.

"Are you a friend of my mum's?" Luke asked.

"Yes, a very old friend. Much older than you'd think just by looking at me," Clara said.

As Hilda stared at Clara in horror, the wheels in her mind began turning as she tried to think of a way to talk herself out of this situation or at least a way to buy time until help could arrive.

"Perhaps we could work together. If you want me to spare the children, I can do that. I'm even willing to give up my revenge on Miss Smith. All that really matters to me is ruling this world. This world should be mine. Only I can guide it into a bright new future. Surely you wouldn't deny mankind a chance to benefit from the results of my genius, would you?" Hilda said.

"I think I can safely speak for all of mankind when I say 'No thanks!'" Clara said.

Clara was about to use her Vortex powers to knock Hilda unconscious when she was suddenly grabbed from behind and caught in the steel grip of a pair of powerful steel arms. She realized even as she quickly began to black out that it was one of the K1s.

Clara quickly dematerialized out of the robot's grip and then slowly staggered towards Luke. She grabbed his hand and the two of them dematerialized once again before either K1 or Hilda could stop them.

Clara and Luke reappeared inside of the TARDIS seconds later, and Clara quickly collapsed on the floor unconscious. She had somehow managed to hold on just long enough to save Luke.

"Clara?" the Doctor asked her in concern but there was no answer. She was out cold.

"Apparently she's still very human, Doctor. She can still get hurt just as easily as we can. I hope that she's going to be alright," Sarah Jane said as she wrapped her arms around Luke.

"She saved my life. Who is she?" Luke asked.

"My . . . everything," the Doctor said in a voice filled with worry as he used his sonic screwdriver to quickly scan her vital signs.

He began to cry tears of joy as he realized that she was going to be okay. There was no real damage done.

Clara immediately woke up as a tear hit her cheek, and she smiled at him with a look of pure guilt written all over her face.

"Sorry, Chin Boy. I didn't mean to worry you. I guess I should have told you about that little trick that I could pull, huh?" Clara said.

"Don't you ever go off alone like that again!" The Doctor shouted as he held her to him closely and shook with emotion.

"I'm sorry," Clara said again softly as he kissed the top of her head.

The Doctor quickly let her go, but he just as quickly grabbed onto her hand and held it tightly. He was going to make sure that she never left his side again until this was all over with. If she went somewhere now, she was going to have to take him along with her.

"So you can materialize and dematerialize too?" Sarah Jane asked Clara.

"Apparently. I actually wasn't completely sure about that until just now. I always thought that I could do it in theory, but I was never sure. I decided to go for broke when I realized just how in danger that Luke was. Miss Winters must have pulled the K1 near Sky back to her to protect herself. That must mean that she's near Sky. We have to go there now to make sure that she's safe. Hurry. Tell me where she is," Clara said.

Sarah Jane quickly gave her the address, and the TARDIS dematerialized without anyone having to touch the console.

Christina smiled as she said to Clara, "I love it when you do that."

"This is just amazing," Luke agreed.

The TARDIS materialized right outside of the house of Sky's friend just in time to be hit hard by a giant fist. The TARDIS fell over and landed on its back as the monitor suddenly showed two huge K1s outside. Apparently the one from Sarah Jane's attic had just arrived as well. One of them was now reaching towards the TARDIS with a large outstretched hand.

"Oh, no you don't!" Clara said as her eyes briefly glowed.

The giant K1's hand went through thin air as the TARDIS vanished. It hadn't dematerialized however.

"I've put us two seconds out of sync so that the two K1s can't reach us. What do we do now, Chinny?" Clara asked.

"Well, I'm glad that I'm still good for something. I was starting to feel just a bit useless lately," the Doctor said pouting.

"He just hates it that he's not the center of attention now that you're around," Sarah Jane said.

"I know. I'm going to have to hold back from now on so that I don't hurt Mr. Chin's fragile ego so much," Clara said as she looked at the Doctor affectionately.

"Oi!" the Doctor said in protest.

"Why are they so large now?" Christina asked as she watched the two K1s still trying to find them on the monitor.

"The original K1 grew larger by absorbing energy thanks to being made out of living metal. It looks like these two are exactly the same. The one that grabbed you must have absorbed the Vortex energy from you, Clara, and then he shared it with the other one. That's wonderful. Two giant robots and the metal destroying virus doesn't work on them this time. Oh, this is a tough one," the Doctor said.

"You're just loving this, aren't you?" Clara asked with a grin.

"You know me so well," the Doctor said with a mad smile on his face.

Then his smile faded as the two K1s suddenly gave up searching for the TARDIS and started towards the house nearby. He knew that he was quickly running out of time.

"I can materialize around Sky to protect her, but that doesn't solve the main problem of stopping the robots' rampage," Clara said as she prepared to do just that if it was necessary.

"They're still living metal though like validium or your architectural reconfiguration system, Sexy. That means that they can be reshaped or even reconfigured and remade into another form," the Doctor said.

"Maybe even hacked into and forced to reconfigure themselves," Clara said as a smile crossed her face.

"That's clever. That's just . . . You are just so sexy, Sexy!" The Doctor said as he gave Clara a quick kiss.

Then he rushed to the console and stared rapidly hitting buttons, turning levers, and twisting knobs faster than any of the rest of them could keep up. Clara smiled as she could feel him using the TARDIS to attempt to hack into the central processing units of both K1s at once.

"What?" Clara asked Christina as she smirked at her.

"You didn't stop him this time. You just let him call you Sexy . . . twice," Christina said.

Clara shrugged her shoulders as she said, "I figured I'd give up trying. It's like trying to fight the ocean to ever get Theta to change."

"I heard that. I think it's because she knows that she deserves that name in more ways than one especially in this moment. Being clever is the new sexy after all. It's almost as cool as bow ties," the Doctor said as he continued to feverishly work the controls on the console in an attempt to hack into the programming of the two robots.

"Now I feel all special inside. I'm being compared to the great and mighty bow tie," Clara said laughing.

Outside Hilda smiled in triumph as the two K1s headed towards the house. Just as they were about to crash inside of it though, they both began to start changing and rearranging themselves.

Hilda watched in horror as the two K1s suddenly reconfigured their bodies completely and became two K-9s. The two K-9s then turned toward Hilda and said in unison, "Obeying instructions, Master."

"What?! What is this?" Hilda asked in disbelief.

"Stun Miss Winters and let's end this, K-9s," the Doctor said into the console.

"Affirmative, Master," both K-9s said as they both fired stun beams at Hilda.

Hilda rapidly ran away from them as she struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Meanwhile the TARDIS materialized again, and the Doctor and the others immediately came running outside.

"I don't know how you've managed to accomplish this, but you haven't won yet, Doctor. I still have one last plan that will save the day for me yet," Hilda said.

"You turned them into K-9s? I can't believe you," Sarah Jane said to the Doctor in disbelief.

"I fed the blueprints for K-9 into the console and force fed them into the processing units of the K1s. They completely overrode the programming of the K1s and replaced it with themselves. I guess you could call it a sort of K-9 virus," the Doctor said grinning.

"If you wanted a pet, you could have just asked me, Chin Boy," Clara said laughing.

"Are we going to keep them, Doctor? They're kind of cute for a tin dog," Christina said as she watched the K-9s continue to chase Hilda with amusement on her face.

"You know I never even thought about that. Maybe I will keep at least one of them. I've missed having a K-9 around," the Doctor mused.

"I was just kidding with that pet comment," Clara said.

"You'll love K-9, Old Girl. You loved him before. The two of you used to communicate all the time," the Doctor said smiling.

"I was mostly telling him to go away most of the time, Doctor. He just kept wanting to play chess with me all of the time. He was such a sore loser," Clara said.

"He always lost?" the Doctor asked shocked and a bit put out at the same time.

"Yep," Clara said smugly because she knew that K-9 usually beat the Doctor at chess.

"Doctor, look! Something's happening. Hilda's just standing there with a smile on her face now," Sarah Jane said.

"Something's wrong," Clara said.

"I always hate it when the villains start to smile like that. It always means that they know something that I don't. I hate when someone knows something that I don't," the Doctor said.

"He hates not being the cleverest one in the room," Clara explained to Christina.

"Yeah, I figured that out a long time ago, Sexy," Christina said grinning.

"Hey, don't you start calling me that now too!" Clara said with an embarrassed look on her face as Christina laughed at her.

"I figured I'd join in since that seems to be your new name now," Christina said as she continued to laugh at Clara's extremely red cheeks.

"I'm going to kill you, Theta," Clara mumbled under her breath.

"You'll have to get in line behind that thing first," Christina said as she suddenly looked up in terror.

A huge maggot appeared in front of them and began moving toward the Doctor as Hilda said, "In looking through UNIT's records to look for information on Miss Smith, I found some long buried files on a supercomputer that you fought once called BOSS, Doctor. It seems that BOSS had discovered a chemical to make things grow and used it on maggots. I decided to see if it would work and was amazed at its success. I just made one giant maggot because quite frankly I couldn't stand looking at it. Right now though, it looks almost beautiful to me."

"I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder," Clara said.

"It's probably the only thing she could get to date her," Christina couldn't resist adding.

"Wait your turn, girl. You'll soon be next," Hilda promised Christina as the maggot moved ever closer towards the Doctor.

"I can hardly wait. Doctor, please tell me that you have an idea for getting rid of this thing," Christina said anxiously.

"K-9s, stun it!" the Doctor ordered.

"Affirmative, Master," both K-9s said as they both shot their stun beams at it.

The maggot continued to move forward without even slowing down.

"Results are negative, Master. The life form is too big for our stun blasts to take effect," both of the K-9s said at once.

Then the maggot finally reached the Doctor and was about to attempt to eat him as Christina screamed and attempted to pull him to safety. Clara only had moments to act. She quickly jerked her hand free of the Doctor's and dematerialized.

The maggot exploded into a million pieces, and Clara emerged from it glowing with power. Then she collapsed on the ground again for the second time that day. She had used too much power too quickly. Her human body wasn't capable of handling so much of it at once.

She knew this, but she had done it anyway. She had had to take that risk to save her Doctor.

"Clara!" the Doctor screamed in terror.

Hilda began to run but was quickly knocked out with a lightning fast punch by Christina. Christina then dragged her up by the shirt collar and said, "If she's dead, I'll make sure that you pay!"

"Christina, no! She wouldn't want that," the Doctor said through tears.

"Doctor, she's not dead, is she?" Sarah Jane asked in an upset voice.

"I can't find her pulse," the Doctor said in a lifeless voice.

He tried again and again to exam her but found no signs of life. He broke down next to her as he held her close to her.

"Come on, my Impossible Girl. Surprise me one last time. Please!" the Doctor pleaded as he kissed her now lifeless lips.

In another world, Rose Tyler suddenly woke up from a deep sleep and her eyes glowed with power as she said, "I bring life."

Clara suddenly gasped as she came back to life and said in a weak voice that no one could hear, "Rose."

The Doctor looked at her in complete shock and then kissed her over and over again as he said, "I'm so glad you listened to me and came back. My Clara."

"She wouldn't let me die," Clara said again in a weak voice.

Back on Pete's World, Rose smiled and shook her head. Clara was determined to get herself killed it seemed. Then again she was traveling with the Doctor so what else could she expect? She certainly hoped that she didn't make this a regular thing. She had little enough sleep as it was with the new baby around.

What was she kidding? She'd always do whatever it took to make the Doctor happy. Both of her Doctors.

Meanwhile back on the main Earth, the Doctor held Clara to him so tightly that she could barely breathe as she said in a stronger voice, "I'm okay now. It's alright."

"I told you to stop doing that," the Doctor said in an accusatory voice.

"It's your job to save the universe, and it's my job to save you, Doctor. I'd die of boredom without you around anyway," Clara said as she kissed him.

"If you ever do something like that again, I'll . . ." the Doctor said in a furious voice.

"You'll do what?" Clara asked.

"I'll be very upset," the Doctor said truthfully.

"I'm sorry. I'll try not to die again in the future. Believe me," Clara said.

"Thank you, Doctor, Clara. I can never thank you enough for saving both of my children in the same day. I still can't believe that Sky and the others never came out with all of the noise out here," Sarah Jane said.

"That was me. I put them and everyone else in the area into a deep sleep, Sarah Jane. I didn't want them all to panic and get in the way. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but I thought it was for the best," Clara said.

"In this case, I think it was. Thank you, Clara," Sarah Jane said.

"It's no problem. It's the least that I could do for you for how you've helped both of us in the past," Clara said.

"I think it's time that we went somewhere to just relax for a while, Clara. I know you certainly deserve some time to wind down," the Doctor said.

"I know the perfect place to go. I said I'd take you to see Craig after all," Clara said.

"Good. I've missed seeing good old Stormy. I wonder if he's conquered anything yet," the Doctor said smiling.

"Is this some kind of alien baby?" Christina asked confused.

"No, he's just a regular baby with a huge ego and delusions of grandeur. It's why the Doctor likes him so much I think. They're so similar to one another," Clara said laughing.

"I'll let that pass this time because I missed you so much," the Doctor said.

"I was only gone less than a minute," Clara said trying to gloss over her death as much as she could.

"It felt like an eternity. Don't ever do that again. Just . . . don't," the Doctor said in a broken voice filled with pain.

"I won't, Doctor. I won't. I promise," Clara said as she embraced him and gave him a tender kiss.

Sarah Jane pulled Christina aside as the Doctor and Clara kissed, and she whispered to her, "Take good care of them and remember the most important rule of traveling with the Doctor."

"What's that?" Christina asked.

"He needs someone there to take care of him. It's not just to keep him from going too far or to keep him alive either. He also needs someone to help him realize that he needs to stop and enjoy life sometimes too and not just have one life threatening adventure after another all the time. Make sure that he and Clara both do that. They both need some time to just relax after what just happened. Make sure that they do that, Christina. Take care of them for me, okay?" Sarah Jane said.

Christina was touched by this heartfelt plea and said, "I will. I promise. I'll make sure that the two of them have a jeopardy free holiday if I have to knock them both out with a cricket bat and take them somewhere fun myself."

"Well, I don't know if you should go that far," Sarah Jane said.

"With those two, I might just have to," Christina said only half joking.

As soon as UNIT came to take Hilda Winters away, the Doctor, Clara, and Christina said their goodbyes to Sarah Jane and Luke and soon left taking the two K-9s with them. They were now headed to see Craig where the Doctor was going to give one of the K-9s to Craig as a gift.

Christina was determined to keep her promise to Sarah Jane. They would just have fun this time. No more monsters or deadly danger.

It was too bad she wasn't going to get to keep that promise.

**Next: The Doctor, Clara, and Christina meet Craig and try to have a nice vacation for once. It doesn't quite turn out that way though as an old enemy of the Doctor's returns from the dead. Like Clara Oswald, he has been scattered through time and space, but he will not be for much longer if his newest plan succeeds. Soon Scaroth will be whole once more, and the human race will have never even existed in the first place.**


	8. Echoes Across Time Part 1

CHAPTER 8

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews! **

ECHOES ACROSS TIME PART 1

**Ancient Egypt, Three thousand years ago**

"Princess Claranamon, one of the gods has appeared among us and wishes to speak to you," the young servant to the Pharoah's daughter said to her mistress.

"One of the gods? Which one would that be? Ra? Horus?" Claranamon, who was actually one of Clara Oswald's echoes, said skeptically.

"I truly don't know, my lady. I've never seen his like before. He has green skin and one large eye in the center of his head. Perhaps he is a god unseen by us until now," the servant said.

"Or maybe he's not a god at all but only wants us to think that he is," Claranamon said.

"What else could he be, my lady?" the servant asked.

"A visitor from beyond the stars. An alien from another world maybe even another time," Claranamon said.

"My lady?" the servant asked as she looked at her as though she were mad.

"She's quite right, my dear. I am not truly a god but to mindless primitives such as you I might as well be," a strange echoing voice said from the doorway to the Princess' chamber.

The servant immediately bowed in obedience and fear as the strange being faced off against Claranamon. Claranamon smiled as she said, "You're not a god. I know exactly who you are. Hello, Scaroth."

Scaroth had a history similar to Clara's own. He had been the pilot of a ship filled with the last members of an alien race called the Jaggeroth. They had once landed on a lifeless Earth four hundred million years earlier, and Scaroth had made the mistake of trying to take off and leave the planet on warp drive when the ship's thrust motors were damaged. The ship had then exploded killing everyone on board but Scaroth.

Scaroth didn't walk away from the explosion in one piece however. He was scattered throughout Earth's history into twelve splintered versions of himself that could all communicate with each other telepathically just like Clara and her selves could. Working together these twelve selves had worked behind the scenes to push humanity forward so that mankind would develop time travel technology. He had worked for millennia for this sole purpose so that he could go back in time and stop his original self from leaving the planet. He was trying to rewrite his own history.

The Doctor, his companion the Time Lady Romana, and a human named Duggan had stopped the last splinter of Scaroth from reaching his original self in time, and history had stayed on course. The Jaggeroth ship exploded as it should, and the resulting explosion had killed the last splinter of Scaroth even as it scattered his original self and exposed the amino acids of Earth to enough radiation to create life on the planet. Basically if Scaroth had saved himself in the past, then there would never have been a human race in the first place.

Clara had thought that that had been the end of the story, but obviously she had been wrong because this was the first splinter of Scaroth standing before one of her other selves now.

"Who are you and how do you know that name? I've heard many things about you, Claranamon, if that is truly who you are. From what I know about you, you're far too intelligent to be just a simple princess on this backwater planet. I'd say that you must know that interfering Time Lord, the Doctor," Scaroth said.

"Doctor who?" Claranamon asked as she pretended to act dumb.

"I think you know exactly who I'm talking about, Princess. He's the interfering alien who prevented my last self from saving us all from this horrible fate of being scattered through time. He made one fatal mistake though. He didn't kill my other eleven selves. We learned of the fate of our brother, and now we've just been waiting for a second chance to come along to gain both our revenge on the Doctor and our freedom at the same time. I believe that I've finally found that chance for all of us. You're one of his friends, aren't you? You will contact him for us and bring him here wherever he is, won't you?" Scaroth said.

"Even if I knew this Doctor and could do as you ask, why would I do that?" Claranamon said with a smug grin on her face.

"That's because if you don't, I will kill you," Scaroth said as he pulled a sword out of its scabbard hanging by his side.

"Maybe I don't care what you do to me. Did you ever think of that?" Claranamon said bravely.

She had already fulfilled her life's goal of saving the Doctor from the Great Intelligence in this time period so she had no fear of death at this point. She didn't want to die, but if she had to in order to save the Doctor then she gladly would without hesitation.

"Maybe not but you do care about your people, don't you? If you don't contact the Doctor and bring him here to me, I will give one of the enemies of Egypt the secret of gunpowder and set them loose on your country with it. How long do you think that it will take for Egypt to fall?" Scaroth said with glee.

"You can't do that. You'll change all of history not to mention kill thousands of innocent people," Claranamon said in disgust.

"Do you really think I care? The lives of the human race are insignificant compared to those of my people. I will bring back the Jaggeroth and nothing will stop me this time. Bring the Doctor to me or I will change this entire planet's history completely. It won't just be here either but all throughout its past. My other selves are already planning on majorly altering things in their own times even as we speak. Tell me. What is your answer now, Princess?" Scaroth asked with a smirk.

Claranamon said nothing. All she could do was hang her head in defeat as Scaroth laughed in triumph.

**Present Day**

The TARDIS landed right outside of Craig and Sophie's house, and the Doctor, Clara, and Christina immediately headed for the front door while the two K-9s stayed inside of the time ship. Just before the Doctor was about to knock though, Craig opened it and stared at him with an expression of annoyance on his face.

"Oh, no! Not now!" Craig said.

"I take it you're not happy to see me," the Doctor said as he began to pout.

"Not right now, no," Craig said as he nervously watched the area behind the Doctor for something or more likely someone to appear.

"Why not?" the Doctor asked now in full pout mode.

"That's because your being here means trouble. It always does," Craig said.

"Since when? I can visit you without their being trouble, can't I?" the Doctor asked.

"You always bring trouble along with you, Doctor, and I can't have that today. Especially not this day," Craig said.

"I take it that this man knows you very, very well, Doctor," Christina said laughing.

The Doctor frowned at her but otherwise ignored her as he said, "Can't I just have a day to do whatever it is that normal people do with my good friend, Craig? Is that too much to ask? I came all of this way just to spend my vacation with you. I even brought you a special gift. A little metal dog named K-9. You'll love him. I have one just like him, and he's one of my best friends. Isn't that cool? That shows just how special that you are to me."

"Tell you what. Go on ahead to the future and meet me here in about a week, okay? We'll have plenty of fun together then, and it'll be perfectly fine," Craig said as he tried to shut the door in the Doctor's face.

"Why not today though while I'm already here?" the Doctor asked as he stuck his foot in the door.

"Not today," Craig pleaded.

"Doctor, why don't we just do as he says and go, okay?" Clara said as she finally broke into the conversation.

Craig seemed to notice her and Christina for the first time and gave them a surprised look that made Clara say, "I'm Clara Oswald, the Doctor's fiancé, and this is our friend, Lady Christina de Souza. Christina, this is Craig Owens."

Craig looked at Clara in shock as he said, "Fiance? You're marrying the Doctor?"

"Well, you don't have to say it like that," the Doctor said annoyed as Clara laughed.

"I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that I always thought that you were like a monk or something and didn't do that sort of thing," Craig said.

"A monk?! No, monks aren't cool. They're the opposite of what I am. I'm the King of Cool," The Doctor said proudly.

"You'll have to excuse him. He's had some very bad experiences with headless monks not to mention meddling ones," Clara said smiling.

"You'll also have to excuse his lack of sanity, but then I guess you're already familiar with that. It's nice to meet you by the way," Christina said as she gave Craig her best flirtatious smile.

"He's already with someone and has a baby with them," Clara said frowning at her.

"You told me that he's not married though. Right?" Christina said.

"That's what this is all about actually. I'm going to meet Sophie's parents here today, and I want to make a good impression on them because I'm going to ask her to marry me soon. That's why none of you can be here. You all have to go now," Craig said.

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't realize it was that serious," Christina said apologetically.

"That's alright. You were really interested in me though?" Craig asked surprised.

"Of course. Why not?" Christina asked with a grin.

Craig looked pleased with himself for a moment and then quickly frowned as he said, "I'm glad to meet both of you, but you'll have to go. They should be here any minute now, and I don't want anything to mess things up."

"Why do you think we'll mess things up for? I can't imagine where you'd get that idea from," the Doctor asked innocently.

Craig, Clara, and Christina all stared at the Doctor as if he was mad as Clara said, "What do you mean we, Chin Boy?"

"Are you trying to imply that I would cause trouble, Sexy? Me?" the Doctor asked indignantly.

"There are certain worlds out there where the name Doctor doesn't mean warrior or healer. It means 'extremely annoying troublemaker' instead. Does that answer your question? As for my name, you're not to call me Sexy anymore now that you've got Christina calling me that too now. That's just too embarrassing. It's either Clara or Boss. Either one is fine with me," Clara said grinning.

Craig began laughing as he said, "I guess I know who's who in your family."

"She's not my boss. I do whatever I want to," the Doctor protested.

"Really? What are you going to do it in then? I mean you do realize that the TARDIS won't move an inch if I don't want it to," Clara said with an evil smile on her face.

"You wouldn't do that to me. You wouldn't strand me in one time and place, would you?" the Doctor asked looking terrified.

Clara's eyes softened as she almost gave him a hug, but she was determined not to crack as she said, "You bet I would, Chin Boy. So you'd better keep me happy."

The Doctor looked so sad that Clara immediately broke and kissed him as she said, "I'd never do that to you. I promise. I just don't want you to call me that or Old Girl anymore. I'm trying to stay myself, and you're not helping any by doing that. It's like you prefer the Old Cow over me."

The Doctor looked hurt as he said, "That's not true. I love you, Clara. I love you as yourself not as the TARDIS. It's just that, well, how cool is it that you're my TARDIS at the same time? I can finally talk to that part of you. I've been waiting to do that for so long."

Clara lightly stroked the side of his face as she said in a soft voice, "I know. I'm glad that we, I mean she, can talk now for your sake."

"This is really bothering you, isn't it? It shouldn't. I love you. The real you, Clara Oswald," the Doctor said as he gave her a passionate kiss.

"Do you mean it? It's really me and not her?" Clara asked in an unguarded moment.

"It's always been you. I loved you even before I knew about your connection to her. I was just too afraid to tell you," the Doctor said as he kissed her again.

"Because you thought that I was just human, and you'd lose me someday. That's the same reason you left Rose on Pete's World," Clara said with a frown.

"You know why I did that. I don't want to have my hearts broken again. I've already lost people before, and the pain of that almost destroyed me. You of all people should know that. You know more about me than anyone else living," the Doctor said.

"I also know that if you never use your hearts, Doctor, you might as well not have them," Clara pointed out.

"I'm sorry. I was an idiot. I know," the Doctor said as he held her.

Clara smiled at him as she said, "That's okay. I still love you anyway."

The two of them kissed again as Craig and Christina looked at each other and smiled. Christina gestured to him to go ahead and shut the door now while he still could and he nodded. It was already too late though.

Clara suddenly pulled away from the Doctor with a look of horror on her face as she said, "Doctor, something's wrong. It's one of my other selves. She's calling me for help. Your old enemy, Scaroth, has found her and is threatening to alter history in her time on a massive scale if you don't come and meet with him immediately. You can't though. It's a trap. He wants to use you to alter history for him so that he can save his people."

The Doctor looked at her in horror as he said, "He'd do it too. All he cares about is saving himself and the others. He'd gladly wipe out humanity. He almost did it before. I've got to go back and stop him and all of his splinter selves somehow before any of them can alter history."

"We need to go now then. We don't have a minute to waste," Clara said in a blind panic.

The TARDIS suddenly dematerialized and then materialized around them in the next instant as it started to take them directly to Ancient Egypt. There was only one problem though.

"What the?! Doctor!" Craig screamed.

"I didn't have anything to do with it this time. Yell at her instead," the Doctor said.

"I'm so sorry. You were standing so close to Christina that I got you too by mistake. I'll take you back as soon as everything's over. I'll put you back right after you left. I promise," Clara said in a worried voice.

"I certainly hope so. Sophie will kill me if I mess this up. How did you do that anyway? I thought that the TARDIS couldn't move by itself," Craig said.

"She is the TARDIS, Craig. She has complete control over it because she's a part of it," Christina said.

Craig looked at her in amazement and then smiled at the Doctor as he said, "She must be your dream come true."

"Oh, shut up!" both the Doctor and Clara said at once as they smiled at one another.

"Are they always like this together?" Craig asked.

"Pretty much. You get used to it," Christina said.

"Here I thought he was bad enough by himself," Craig said.

"Oi!" the Doctor and Clara both said together again.

"Aren't you glad you have me here to talk to? I'm the sane one. Well, sort of," Christina said grinning.

"Your sanity seems to be reasonably intact, Mistress," one of the K-9s said to her.

"Don't call me that. Call me Christina," Christina insisted.

"Affirmative, Mistress Christina," K-9 said.

Christina groaned as she said, "I guess that's close enough."

"Is this the metal dog that he was talking about then?" Craig asked.

"Yeah, you can have one of them if you want to. I'm not sure why you would though," Christina joked.

"Do not cast aspersions on me for the other K-9's mistakes, Mistress Christina. He can't help being obviously inferior to this unit," K-9 said.

Christina laughed as she said, "I think we'll keep this one. I like him. He makes me laugh."

"I was not attempting to make a joke, Mistress Christina," K-9 said.

"I know. That's part of the reason why it was so funny," Christina said as she lightly petted the metal dog's head.

"I guess one of these dogs would make a good pet for Alfie. Oh, no! Alfie! He's in the house alone! Sophie's really going to kill me now!" Craig said.

"I know and I'm sorry. I'll bring you right back. I promise," Clara said.

Craig nodded but continued to look worried. Christina put a friendly arm around him as she said, "It's okay. You can trust her. She's not unreliable like he is."

"Hey!" the Doctor protested.

"Oh, shut up, Theta!" Clara said as she kissed him to distract him.

Then the TARDIS finally landed and the Doctor emerged to find Scaroth holding Claranamon hostage with a sword against her throat while her servant cowered nearby in fear. He exited first after whispered to Clara, "No matter what you do don't let him know what you are."

"I'm here, Scaroth. Let her go. I'm the one that you want," the Doctor said.

"That doesn't quite seem to be true though. Not according to my new ally," Scaroth said.

"Hello, Doctor. Hello to you too, Clara. Or should I call you the TARDIS?" the Master said behind them with an evil laugh.

"I command you to seize the girl," Scaroth ordered the guards in the Princess' chamber.

They immediately obeyed him because they thought that he actually was a god and seized Clara.

"This is the way to save your people, Scaroth. The girl can control the TARDIS with her mental commands. Get her to use it to take you back to that fateful day, and you can save them all. Then the Doctor's precious humans will never have even existed at all which is as it should be," the Master said laughing.

"Do it!" Scaroth ordered Clara.

"Never!" Clara shouted as one of the guards put a sword to her throat as well.

"Then watch as your lover and the humans die. Kill them!" Scaroth commanded.

One of the guards holding Clara let go of her as he advanced menacingly towards Christina and Craig. The Master meanwhile pointed his laser screwdriver at the Doctor.

"No, leave them alone!" Clara said as she began to glow with power.

The Master quickly shot Clara with his laser screwdriver, and she immediately fell unconscious in the arms of the guard holding her. He then quickly moved his screwdriver back to cover the Doctor as he rushed towards him with pure anger on his face.

"If you've hurt her, I'll . . ." the Doctor said in a voice filled with venom.

The Master laughed as he said, "Now do you see how you can make him help you, Scaroth? Threaten the girl and he'll do whatever you want. That's the Doctor's weakness is his feelings for others. It always was."

"Use the TARDIS to take me back to the time of my greatest failure once more, Doctor, or I will kill her and your two friends. Do you understand me? Don't even think of trying to trick me later either. Even if you did manage to beat this version of me the others would know, and they would immediately start altering Earth's history in retribution so that humanity will be wiped out anyway. No matter what you do you can't win this time, Doctor. I will save my people, and the human race won't even be a memory anymore," Scaroth said.

"You can't do this, Doctor!" Christina protested.

"She's right. The entire human race will be wiped from time including Sophie and Alfie!" Craig protested.

"I have no choice. This time it seems that not even I can get out of this one," the Doctor said in resignation as he led the way into the TARDIS while the others followed.

The Master laughed even as Scaroth said, "Finally! The centuries that divide me shall be undone at last!"

**Next: Not if Clara's echoes have anything to say about it! Next time it's action in several times at once as the Doctor takes the Egyptian Scaroth back in time to try once again to undo his mistake and bumps into his fourth self, Romana, and their friend Duggan along the way even while all of the Claras find and confront the Scaroths of their own times and attempt to stop them from altering history. **


	9. Echoes Across Time Part 2

CHAPTER 9

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews! **

ECHOES ACROSS TIME PART 2

As the Doctor took Scaroth, Christina, Craig, and an unconscious Clara held by several servants holding swords back to the past in the TARDIS, the Master stayed behind with Claranamon and her servant. He smiled at the princess while remaining silent as she began to wonder what he was still doing here.

"Now that I've gotten that fool out of the way, I can finally get what I came here for," the Master said with an ever widening smile on his face.

She began to become alarmed and moved away from him in fear as her fingers quickly searched for a sword that she kept hidden behind her throne.

The Master laughed as he said, "No, I have no interest in killing you unless you make it unavoidable. I want your necklace, Princess. The one that you always wear around your neck. Give it to me now."

Claranamon looked at him in surprise and held onto the necklace with the howling wolf's head on it tightly as she said, "This is my symbol of office. It holds no value for you whatsoever."

"Oh, but it does. You don't even know what you have there, do you? I do though and I will soon use it to rule over all of time and space. Let that insipid idiot undo humanity's future if he wants. What do I care about humans anyway? They're such a limited little species, and I have always focused myself on bigger fish and a much wider view of things. I will use that necklace to rule everything in the absence of the Time Lords, and no one and nothing will stop me now that Scaroth is keeping the Doctor and your original self busy. Now, give it to me!" the Master shouted as his smile quickly became a snarl.

"No. If you want it, it can't be a good idea to allow you to have it. You won't get anything from me," Claranamon said as she finally found her sword at last and held it out in front of her threateningly.

"Such fire. Yes, I can see what the Doctor sees in your original self. It's too bad that you have such terrible taste in men or I could easily see the two of us becoming quite close with one another," the Master said as he began to smile again.

"I'd rather be with Strax," Claranamon said in disgust at the thought.

The Master laughed as he said, "I'm sure the two of you would make such a cute couple together too. I could care less about your love life though. I only want the amulet. Give it to me now, and I will let you live. Refuse to give it to me, and I'll take it from your corpse. You decide."

Then he pulled out his laser screwdriver and pointed it straight at her. She knew from the look on his face that she only had a minute to decide before he would fire.

Luckily for her, she didn't have to make that decision.

"Let her go," Claranamon's servant suddenly said as she stood up and began to glow with power.

"What?!" the Master said as he looked at her in shock.

The servant disappeared and then reappeared next to the Master in the blink of an eye. She blasted the Master at point blank range with a huge burst of Vortex energy from her hands, and he quickly fell to the ground unconscious. Then she turned around and smiled at a shocked Claranamon as her appearance changed from that of her servant to Clara's.

"Hey! I knew he was up to something. He never helps anyone unless something's in it for him," Clara said as she gave her other self a comforting hug.

"I thought you went back to the past with the Doctor though. How are you here, and how did you copy Anyatep's appearance like that? Where is she anyway?" Claranamon said in complete bewilderment.

"She's fine. She's still in her bed sleeping. I gave her a little mental suggestion to get some more sleep while I replaced her this morning so don't get mad at her. It seems I have a limited ability to change my appearance just like my outer shell does. I'm sure that'll come in handy sometime. As for how I'm here, that's all very timey wimey as the Doctor might say. I'll tell you the whole story while I'm waiting on the Doctor to come back for me. In the meantime, we'll keep an eye on the Prince of Darkness over there," Clara said as the two girls started to tie up the Master together.

"Why did he want my amulet for anyway? What's so special about it?" Claranamon asked.

"I don't exactly know just yet, but I'm sure that whatever the Master's reasons are for wanting it can't be good," Clara said.

"Maybe the Doctor will know," Claranamon said.

"No. If he knew then I would know. I know everything that's in his head through our link with one another. Will you give me the amulet so that I can protect it? I promise that if I can, I'll bring it back to you," Clara said.

Claranamon nodded and slipped it off of her neck to give to her. Then as Clara held the amulet and studied it, she began her story of what happened to her once her past self left in the TARDIS.

**Meanwhile at the same time in the TARDIS (Like Clara said, it's all timey wimey):**

"Remember, Doctor, that you cannot interfere this time as you did before. If you do, my other selves will know, and they will tear the history of your favorite world apart anyway. Just stay in the TARDIS until I have freed my people. Then you and the others are free to go. I'm sure that the TARDIS will keep your human friends from fading out of existence especially since her other self is one of them," Scaroth said in an amused voice.

"The TARDIS would keep us from being erased?" Christina asked.

"Yes, but only as long as you stay inside of her. You would have to stay with me for the rest of your life and never leave the ship. If you did, you would fade out of existence forever and not even be a memory," the Doctor said.

Christina was speechless for once as she looked at him in absolute terror.

"So if Sophie and Alfie are erased, I won't remember them either?" Craig asked in horror.

"No, I'm afraid not because they're a part of your own timeline. You would forget them. The rest of us would remember them because we're time travelers but you wouldn't," the Doctor said in a sad voice.

"No! That would be even worse than killing them! You can't let him do that!" Craig shouted in pain.

"He has no choice. I truly have him over a barrel as you humans might say. No matter what he does, I win," Scaroth said smugly.

As the TARDIS landed, Scaroth said to the guards holding Clara, "If he tries to leave this room, kill the girl!"

The guards nodded in obedience, and then Scaroth quickly left. He would wait no longer. Soon he would free both his other selves and his people from this horrible trap that he had unintentionally made for them. Soon he would be whole again at last!

First he had to take care of the ones who had stopped him in the first place though. He had already spotted the Fourth Doctor, the Time Lady Romana, and their idiotic human friend, Duggan, in the distance. If he could just keep them from stopping his splinter self from 1979 from warning the original Scaroth not to take off from Earth, then he would win at last. He just had to delay them for a few minutes.

Scaroth started towards them with a sword in his hand as he said, "No, Doctor! Not this time!"

"Doctor, why is Scaroth dressed like that? He left here in 1970s clothing. Could this be one of his other splinter selves?" Romana asked her Doctor.

"I believe he's the first of Scaroth's splinters, Romana. He looks just like the godlike Scaroth that I saw on the Egyptian scroll in the 70s Scaroth's house," the Fourth Doctor said.

"How on Earth did he get here though? Surely if Scaroth had been able to time travel in Ancient Egypt he wouldn't have been funding human time travel experiments in the 1970s with the fencing of multiple Mona Lisas," Romana said in confusion.

"Who cares who he got here? We need to stop him. You keep him distracted, and I'll come up behind him and hit him," Duggan said.

"That's always your answer to everything, isn't it? Just hit everything in your way first, and then ask questions never," the Fourth Doctor said in dismay.

"It works, doesn't it?" Duggan said.

"I sometimes wonder why I love your species so much," the Doctor said sighing.

"I don't. They're just as unorthodox and outside the box as you are, Doctor," Romana said in amusement.

I don't call Duggan's method of pummeling everything in sight thinking outside of the box," the Fourth Doctor complained.

"Well, like he said, Doctor, it works," Romana said laughing at the expression of irritation on the Doctor's face that her statement caused.

"I'm trying to keep him from hitting people as a solution to every problem, and you're encouraging him," the Fourth Doctor complained.

"I sometimes forget that you never really change, Doctor, no matter how much you regenerate. You were always a first class pouter in all of your lives," Clara said as she suddenly appeared next to them.

"Who are you?" Romana asked in surprise.

"Is she working for him?" Duggan asked as he looked at Clara suspiciously.

What was she doing here? Scaroth wondered as he instantly became furious. He decided to watch and wait for a moment before intervening in the hope that the others' suspicions would get the better of them and they would turn on her thinking that she was working with him.

"No, I don't think so. She looks friendly enough. You are friendly, my dear, aren't you?" the Fourth Doctor asked with a warm smile.

"Of course I am. I've been told that I'm a little bit too nice actually," Clara said grinning back at him.

"Doctor, do you really want to take her word for it whether she's on our side or not?" Romana asked as she looked at him incredulously.

"Sometimes you can just tell about people just by looking at them, Romana. I do know one way to always tell though. Would you like a jelly baby?" the Fourth Doctor asked as he offered her one of the little candies from a small sack that he produced from his coat pocket.

"Thanks. I always wondered what these tasted like," Clara said as she took one and ate it.

Clara smiled and immediately took another one as she said, "They're good. I like them."

"See, Romana? She's definitely on our side," the Fourth Doctor said happily.

"Doctor, I think we need more proof of that then the fact that she likes your Earth candy," Romana said rolling her eyes.

"I always say that anyone who likes jelly babies can't be that bad," the Fourth Doctor said with a huge smile.

"She seems to be nice enough. If she was going to attack us, she would have already done it by now," Duggan said as he eyed Clara closely.

"See? Even Duggan trusts her," the Fourth Doctor said.

"That's hardly a ringing endorsement, Doctor," Romana said stubbornly.

"I don't know how you escaped, but you will not interfere! No one will stop me this time!" Scaroth screamed once he realized that they were beginning to trust Clara.

"Okay, maybe you're right after all," Romana admitted.

"Can I hit him now?" Duggan asked.

"No, you can't," the Fourth Doctor said indignantly.

"He won't need to. Some friends of mine will do that for you," Clara said.

As Scaroth had almost reached them, he was surprised by the two K-9s who began to attack him from behind with their stun blasts. Scaroth fell to the ground unconscious but not before he sent out a mental warning to his other selves of what had just occurred.

They wouldn't be allowed to get away with this. They would pay! He thought to himself just before darkness overtook him.

The Fourth Doctor looked at the two K-9s in complete surprise as he said, "K-9 and . . . K-9! Good boys!"

"Master!" Both K-9s said as they wagged their tails at him.

"Yes, they are, aren't they? They're very good boys," the Eleventh Doctor said as he appeared right behind them followed by Christina and Craig.

"Hello, old chap. I knew it had to be one of me behind the past Scaroth's sudden appearance here, and that this girl was one of my friends from the future. That's why I trusted her so, Romana, because she seemed like the type of girl I'd trust. Who else would have brought the past Scaroth here but a future me who had already been here before? He forced you to bring him here, didn't he? Did he threaten her?" the Fourth Doctor asked his future self.

"He did actually plus all of Earth too because apparently just threatening her wasn't good enough for him. He's probably already contacted his other selves and told them to mess around with history like he promised. I like the scarf by the way. I always thought that it looked so cool on me," the Eleventh Doctor said with a huge smile on his face.

"Why, thank you, old chap! It really does suit us, doesn't it?" the Fourth Doctor said proudly.

"Oh, it does. It does," the Eleventh Doctor said nodding.

"Doctor, you can't waste time comparing fashion tips with your future self. We have to stop the other Scaroth from the 70s before it's too late. There he is now," Romana said pointing as yet another Scaroth in 70s clothing appeared and started heading towards his past self in the Jaggeroth spaceship to warn him.

"Who is that?" Duggan asked as he looked at the Eleventh Doctor in confusion.

"Me," Both Doctors said at the same time, and a thoroughly confused Duggan just nodded and kept quiet while Romana chuckled.

"I would talk longer, old fellow, but I must go save the entire human race and all of that. Maybe we can meet again later and swap stories over some jelly babies," the Fourth Doctor said grinning as he, Romana, and Duggan ran off to catch up with the 70s Scaroth.

Soon Duggan would make what the Fourth Doctor would call 'the most important punch in history' and knock out Scaroth before he could change history. His philosophy of life had worked out for him (and the entire human race) after all to the Fourth Doctor's chagrin.

"Clara, we have to go now before the Jaggeroth ship blows up," the Eleventh Doctor said.

"I'm on it, Doctor. Coming right up," Clara said as the TARDIS materialized around all of them including the Egyptian Scaroth at her mental command.

The TARDIS soon dematerialized even as the Doctor said, "I have to go inside of Scaroth's mind and find out exactly when and where his splinter selves are. We may have to go find all of them one at a time in linear order to stop them all from changing history."

The Doctor started to put his hands on either side of Scaroth's head as he prepared to entire his mind. Just before he did, he smiled as he said, "Nice work by the way, Christina. You knocked all of those guards out so fast I could barely see you move. It seems that you're just full of surprises."

"It helps when I'm being threatened with being erased from history forever. Plus . . . my best friend was in danger. That motivated me too," Christina said.

The Doctor smiled as he said, "I didn't know that I meant so much to you. That's touching."

"Not you! Clara!" Christina said as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Thank you, Christina. I think of you as my best friend too," Clara said as she hugged her.

"Oi! What about me?" the Doctor said pouting.

"You're so much more than a best friend to me and you know it," Clara said as she gave him a passionate kiss.

The Doctor smiled so widely for a moment that Clara thought that his face might break in two, and she giggled at him in amusement. Then after a few moments of staring off into space with a goofy grin on his face, the Doctor regained his senses and started to quickly search Scaroth's mind for information on where his other selves were.

"I have to say that was pretty impressive," Craig said to Christina.

"I'm pretty limber and muscular. You have to be when you steal extremely expensive things guarded by highly sophisticated security systems. You have to learn how to do all kinds of moves in order to get through the various things in your way. This is the first time I've ever fought anyone though in a real actual fight and used those skills in a totally different way. It was . . . well, it was just so exciting. It's much better than stealing priceless jewelry. I want to fight someone again!" Christina said in excitement as she balled her fists up and pretended to be hitting someone.

"Well, don't hit me," Craig said nervously as her fists came closer and closer to him.

"I wouldn't think of it. You're too sweet to hit," Christina said as she kissed his cheek.

Clara gave her an irritated look as Craig blushed.

"What? I didn't mean anything by that. I swear I was just being nice," Christina said.

"I believe you. I'm just glad that Sophie didn't see that," Craig said grinning.

"I swear I wasn't flirting," Christina said.

"I know you think you weren't, but I think it just comes so naturally to you that you can't help it sometimes," Clara said.

"I'll try and work on it then. I don't want to have people think that I'm flirting when I'm not. I don't do that to the Doctor, do I? If I do, I don't mean it," Christina said worried.

"No, not to him. When you were calling me Sexy for a while though, I started to wonder sometimes if you were being serious," Clara joked.

"Shut up! That was just a joke. I don't think of you that way, and you know it," Christina said as she playfully punched her shoulder.

Craig smiled as he watched them talk. It was obvious that these two were good people and that they both loved each other and the Doctor dearly. He was glad that the Doctor had found them because it seemed that both of them especially Clara were very good for him. He had never seen the Doctor so happy before.

Even though part of him was so tempted to become a member of this close knit little group and to go off with them on adventures in time and space, he knew that ultimately that sort of life would never work out for him. He wanted a nice normal life with Sophie and Alfie. He couldn't help but miss them more and more the longer that he stayed away from them.

"It's going to be okay, Craig. I'll get you back to them as soon as you left. I promise," Clara said in a voice filled with compassion as she gently touched his cheek and broke him out of his train of thought.

Craig just nodded and could see both Clara and Christina looking at him with concern. They really were kind, caring people.

"We can't drop Craig off just yet. Not until I can stop Scaroth's other selves. I know where all of them are now. We'll just have to go stop each of them one at a time," the Doctor suddenly said after several moments of silence probing Scaroth's mind.

"We won't have to go anywhere, Theta. You leave that to me," Clara said as she stared off into space for a moment.

"What are you doing?" the Doctor asked in confusion.

"I'm telling the other versions of me where the other Scaroths are. Luckily I have a Clara in each of those times who isn't too far from them. Hopefully she can reach them before they can do too much damage," Clara said.

"How do you even know where they are? I never told you," the Doctor asked in even more confusion.

"You forget that you and I, I mean the TARDIS, are telepathically linked. If you know something then I know it too. I usually respect your privacy, but this time I was sure you wouldn't mind if I broke in for a minute to get that information," Clara said.

"So you're guiding the other yous straight to them all at once? That's clever. That's very clever," the Doctor said appreciatively.

Even as the Doctor spoke, several Claras from throughout time and space converged on the various Scaroths, and a massive fight broke out in different eras.

In Ancient Greece, Athena Clara, the daughter of a famous philosopher, uncovered an attempted coup d'etat against the government of Athens and exposed its ringleaders to the local authorities, one of which included a splinter of Scaroth who was trying to destroy all of the achievements of Greece before they could even get started. He and his conspirators were quickly dealt with before they could go any further with their revolt.

In Classical Rome, Claranus Cicilius, a high ranking noblewoman clashed with Virgil Antonius, a politician, as she exposed his corrupt activities such as stealing money from the local treasury (which he was keeping for his future selves to use one day) to the Emperor. Needless to say this particular Scaroth wouldn't be bothering anyone anymore.

In Florence, Italy in 1505, Captain Tancredi crossed paths with Countess Caterina Cellini, also known by her nickname as the Lady Clara and one of the most powerful women of her age, who exposed his illegal activities in forcing various local artists and painters to make copies of their greatest works for him. Captain Tancredi would never see the light of day again once she was finished with him. The local authorities never did find the extra Mona Lisas though.

In each era, a different Clara came up with a smart and clever way to be the undoing of their respective Scaroths. The Scaroths after them always assumed that their various fates had no connection to one another. None of them knew that their downfalls had all been engineered at once by one woman.

Soon all of the Scaroths had been dealt with except for the one that was currently residing in the TARDIS. Clara was planning on letting Claranamon deal with him after having the TARDIS produce a face mask for him so that no one would confuse him for a god anymore.

It seemed as if everything was finally over with and the day had been won at last when the Scaroth in the TARDIS finally woke up at last and said, "The Master didn't lift one finger to help me as he had promised to do so I'm no longer going to keep his secret."

"What secret? What was he really up to?" the Doctor asked knowing that it had to be something more than what it seemed. It always was with the Master.

"He was trying to find an amulet that the Princess Claranamon had around her neck. An amulet of a howling wolf. I don't know why he wanted it, but he seemed to be obsessed with it. I offered to give him the Princess and the amulet if he would help me in my plans to undo my race's destruction. He didn't help me as he had promised and caused my plan to fail so the least that I can do is to stop his from succeeding as well," Scaroth said with satisfaction.

"I have to go help Claranamon then. I'll have to somehow place myself close to her so that I can help her when the time comes. I have a plan, Theta. You need to come and find me just as soon as soon as you left Claranamon behind," Clara said as she dematerialized.

"Clara, wait!" the Doctor shouted but she was already gone.

Now the Doctor materialized back in Ancient Egypt in Claranamon's throne room just a matter of minutes after he had left. Claranamon was obviously back in control again, and she had her soldiers arrest a now human looking Scaroth, whose mind that the Doctor had erased of this whole adventure so that he couldn't warn his other selves in the future about it, and the treacherous guards who had helped him after taking them from the TARDIS. She left the Master for the Doctor to deal with.

"Clara, I'm so glad that you're alright. I told you to stop going off on your own like that!" the Doctor said as he chastised her as soon as they were all back inside of the TARDIS and traveling in the Vortex once again.

"I had to do it. I want back to the past and replaced Claranamon's servant so that I could be there to help her even after you and the past me were sent away. It's a good thing that I was too because the Master almost got his hands on this," Clara said as she handed the amulet to the Doctor.

"What is this? I've never seen anything like it," the Doctor asked as he looked at it in puzzlement.

A now conscious but still tied up Master laughed at him from the floor as he said, "That amulet can give anyone who can activate it the power of a Guardian of Time. That is the Amulet of the White Guardian in which according to legend a portion of the White Guardian's power was once placed. Anyone who knows how to use it could use the power contained within it to control all of time and space with. We're the last of the Time Lords, Doctor. Just think about it. If anyone could use it, we could. Working together, I'm sure that we could figure out how to tap into its power, Doctor. If you had it, you could use it to find Gallifrey and free the Time Lords. You could also undo any mistake that you had ever made. Ultimate power would be yours. Of course, if you were willing to let me go and share the power of the amulet with me I'd gladly tell you how to use it in exchange for co-ruling the universe with you."

The Doctor looked at the amulet with temptation in his eyes as Clara said, "Doctor, don't even think about it! We can't trust him for an instant! We'll find Gallifrey some other way. I know we will."

"I wasn't thinking of letting him go. It is tempting to try to use this though, isn't it?" the Doctor said.

"You don't need that thing, Doctor. The power of a Guardian is too great for it to ever be given to the wrong person. Only a certain person is meant to have such power. It would destroy anyone else no matter how good their intentions in using it might be," Clara warned.

"I know. I just wish . . ." the Doctor said as he looked at it wistfully.

"Oh, give me that!" Christina said as she tired of the conversation over it.

Suddenly Christina began to glow with power as she looked at Clara in terror. Her entire body was bathed in white light until she began to panic and gave the amulet back to Clara.

Everyone looked at Christina in shock as she said, "What just happened? What was that?"

"I can't believe it! I just can't! She can't be worthy of the power!" the Master said in disbelief.

"She's definitely more worthy of it than you are. That's for sure," Clara said.

"Can I go home now?" Craig said as he tried to snap them out of the shock that they were all in.

He had no idea what was going on, but he knew that if he stayed any longer that he would be sucked up into it. He didn't want that to happen. He didn't want any more adventures. He now knew for sure that he wanted no part of this kind of life. He just wanted to go home.

Clara looked at him in surprise as if she had forgotten that he was there and then she said, "Yes, of course. Wait a minute."

She gestured at him, and Craig suddenly dematerialized. He never even got a chance to say goodbye before he found himself right back at his front door just as if he had never left it. He looked out of it to see Sophie and her parents walking up to the door and sighed in relief. He hadn't missed anything after all.

As he opened the door, he smiled and warmly greeted them all. Sophie looked at him questioningly but said nothing. Somehow she knew though from the terrified expression on Craig's face that the Doctor had just paid him another call. She would have to ask him about that and the lipstick that she had briefly seen on his cheek before he had quickly removed it somehow. She would definitely have to ask him about that too later when her parents had left.

As Clara looked in on him with the newly fixed Time-Space Visualizer in the Console Room, she quickly sighed. She had realized her mistake at the last minute and removed Christina's lipstick from Craig's face with her powers, but obviously not quick enough to keep Sophie from seeing it judging from the look on her face. She quickly wrote a note telling Sophie the truth and sent it through the Vortex to her kitchen table. She hoped that Sophie would believe him and that Craig wouldn't get into any more trouble because of her.

She also hoped that she wouldn't discover any more hidden powers. She was already starting to feel less and less human the more of them that she discovered. She was beginning to wonder if there was anything of Clara left in her anymore.

"Do you think that you could send Craig the K-9 that I was going to give him? You sent him back so quickly that I forgot about it," the Doctor said.

"Will the two of you stop wasting time with the useless human and concentrate on what you've just discovered? Your friend can use the power of the Guardians! All you have to do is ask her, and all of our wishes could come true!" the Master said with his eyes widened with fanatical glee.

"I don't want it. I don't ever want to touch that thing again. I felt like I was losing myself more and more the longer that I held it," Christina said terrified.

"You would reject ultimate power?" The Master asked in complete disbelief.

"As hard as it may be for you to believe, not everyone wants to rule the universe," the Doctor said.

"Doctor, what do you want to do with it?" Clara asked as she continued to look at the amulet.

"I don't know, Clara. I just don't know," the Doctor said.

Christina looked at the Doctor sadly. She wanted to help him find his people, but she didn't want to ever touch that amulet again. It had completely terrified her. The longer she had held it the more that it had told her that she wasn't who she thought she was. It was trying to take over her mind and make her into someone else, and she could barely let go of it in time before it had completely taken her over.

She knew that she was never going to touch that thing again or she would never come back from it the next time. She didn't care what that amulet had tried to convince her. She knew who she was. She was the Lady Christina de Souza. She was a human being.

She was not the White Guardian.

**Next: What is the real story behind the amulet and is what it told Christina true? Is she really the White Guardian? **


	10. The Return of the White Guardian

CHAPTER 10

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews! **

THE RETURN OF THE WHITE GUARDIAN

The TARDIS materialized outside of Craig's house, and the Doctor immediately ran outside like an eager child with a huge smile on his face. He was finally going to give Craig his K-9, and more importantly he was going to get to see Stormy again!

The Doctor rang the doorbell and turned to look at one of the K-9s as he said, "Now, be on your best behavior, Boy. We want Sophie to like you so that you'll have a nice home. Stormy's going to love you I'm sure. Now don't let him use you in any schemes to take over the world, okay? That's an order."

"Affirmative. No taking over the world, Master," K-9 said.

"Good boy. What's taking Craig so long to answer? Doesn't he know how excited I am?" the Doctor asked in irritation.

"It's only been a minute, Doctor," Clara said as she came up behind him with an amused look on her face.

"I'm just saying that he should be more prompt. That's all. K-9, blast the door down," the Doctor ordered.

"NO! K-9, override that order! What are you doing? You can't just blast their front door down," Clara said as she glared at the Doctor.

"I want to see if he's alright or not. Something must be wrong or he'd be right out here to see me. Craig and I are the best of chums after all. He would never keep me waiting this long normally," the Doctor said looking worried.

"It's only been a few minutes," Clara said as she shook her head at him.

"How do people put up with waiting for things to happen like this? I hate the slow path. The slow path is definitely not cool," the Doctor said with a frown.

"If you call this the slow path, I'd hate to see what you'd be like waiting in line for . . . well, anything," Clara said laughing at him.

"I don't need to wait in line. That's what I've got you, I mean the TARDIS, for," the Doctor said.

Clara smiled at him in gratitude for separating her from the TARDIS like that as she said, "I think she and I have both spoiled you way too much if you call this slow."

Finally Sophie opened the door, and Clara could see right away that she was not happy. The Doctor though was as usual completely oblivious.

"Sophie! How are you doing? I really hope that Craig's not in too much trouble. He was just helping me out for a while," the Doctor said with a huge smile on his face as he gave her a kiss on each cheek.

Sophie briefly smiled at him despite her bad mood. She was very fond of the Doctor despite everything after all. She knew that he hadn't meant any harm by taking Craig away like that, but that didn't make her any less angry about it. He couldn't keep just randomly showing up and putting Craig into danger like that. He was a father now after all, and he was soon to be her husband.

Clara noticed her anger right away as she said, "I am so sorry. For once, it isn't the Doctor's fault. It's mine. I took Craig with us by accident, and I never had the time to bring him back until our latest little bit of trouble was all over. I'm really very sorry, and I promise that we'll never put him in any danger like that again. Did you get my note by the way?"

Sophie looked at Clara in surprise as she said, "That was you? Are you the one that kissed him then?"

"No, that was my friend, Christina. She didn't mean anything by it. It was just her being friendly. Nothing happened. I swear. I'd bring her out here to tell you that in person, but she's guarding a dangerous prisoner of ours right now so he doesn't escape to try to take over the universe. That sounded so much better in my head," Clara said in a nervous voice.

Then she slapped the Doctor.

"What was that for?!" the Doctor shouted in shock as he rubbed his face.

"That's for making me act like you. I've been around you way too long now, and you've infected me," Clara said.

Sophie started to laugh her head off. She really liked this girl. She must be Clara. She was the one that Craig had told her was the Doctor's fiancé. She readily approved of her. She was exactly the kind of person that the Doctor needed to keep him under control.

"Don't worry, Clara. I'm not mad at Craig, and I do believe that nothing happened. I know Craig would never do that to me. I am angry at him being put in constant danger though. It can't ever happen again," Sophie said firmly.

"It won't. I promise you that," Clara said.

"We can still visit him and Stormy though, right?" the Doctor asked looking fearful.

Sophie smiled as she said, "Of course you can. Just a regular visit though. You know like normal people have. Make sure and keep your world conquering friend in the TARDIS. Alfie doesn't need to get any bad ideas put in his head."

"How about K-9? Do you think that Alfie would like him as a pet?" the Doctor said as he showed K-9 to her.

Sophie looked at the robot dog with a wide smile as K-9 said, "Hello, Mistress. I am programmed to serve you and my new Master in many various ways. I can even help with the everyday duties of running the household. I also speak Baby."

"Do you? Well, we'll just have to have you come and stay with us then. Maybe you can watch over Alfie and help to keep him out of trouble," Sophie said as she patted the top of his metal head.

"Affirmative. Per my previous instructions, I will not help him to conquer the world," K-9 said.

Sophie looked at him oddly but just laughed. She had no idea what that was about, but then why shouldn't the Doctor's robot be just as loony as he was?

"Come on in. Craig's in the baby's room watching him. Are you sure it's safe to leave your other friend alone with whoever you have locked up in the TARDIS though?" Sophie asked in concern.

"Oh, of course. Christina's very clever. He won't get away from her. Plus she may also be an omnipotent being with the power of all of time and space at her fingertips, but I'm not sure about that yet," the Doctor said.

Sophie just looked at him oddly again and shook her head. She wasn't surprised at anything that came out of his mouth anymore.

"Maybe I should go back and stay with her just in case. Touching that amulet really upset her," Clara said.

"She'll be fine, Clara. Besides, I have the amulet in my pocket. It can't possibly bother her in there," the Doctor said confidently.

Clara still looked back at the TARDIS with worry though even as Sophie invited them both inside.

Meanwhile back in the TARDIS, Christina stood guard over the still tied up Master with his own laser screwdriver pointed firmly at him in case he tried anything. She knew that the Doctor wouldn't approve if he found out, but she wanted to make sure that there was no chance of the Master escaping again.

The Master continued to stare at her and look at her with an amused smile on his face until she couldn't stand it anymore and had to break the silence by speaking to him.

"Well, do you have something to say? Go ahead. Let me hear your great and wonderful words of wisdom. From what I've seen, none of you Time Lords are all that brilliant. I mean I love the Doctor, but most of the time he acts like a complete idiot. Here's your chance to prove me wrong though. Impress me," Christina said.

"I'm just wondering why you acted the way that you did earlier. Why does the amulet frighten you so? Is it the power that it holds? No, I don't think it's that. It's not fear of the unknown either or you wouldn't be traveling with the Doctor. No, I think it's because you're afraid of losing your identity. That's it, isn't it? You won't be your limited little human self anymore, and that terrifies you, doesn't it? It's not as if that's any great loss though. You could be so much more. Your true self if you are a Guardian as I suspect you are is so much greater than you could possibly imagine. Why would you not want to embrace that? Don't you want to know who you really are? Surely whoever you really are will be far better than who you are now. You're just a thief regardless of what you stole or how expensive it was. In the end, you're still just a petty thief," the Master said with a sneer.

"Shut up! At least I never hurt anyone. I'm not a monster like you are. I'm proud of who I am. I only stole from the people who could afford to take the loss, and it was never for malicious reasons. It was just for amusement. I was the best. No one can ever take that away from me. I was the best there was at what I did, and now I use those skills to help the Doctor. So that means that it was all worth it in the end. I'm trying to be a better person now. I don't know why I'm trying to explain this all to you anyway," Christina said.

"Why did you really steal though? It wasn't just for amusement, was it? It was for the thrill, right? That's why you're here with the Doctor too. It's for the thrill and the excitement. They make you feel alive, and they fill up the emptiness inside of you. There's a reason that you feel empty, isn't there? It's because deep down inside that you know that you're incomplete. You've always sensed that, haven't you? There's something missing inside of you. Am I right?" the Master said with a malicious smile.

"Stop talking or I'll shoot you. I'm warning you," Christina said in anger.

"I've hit on a sore spot, haven't I? Do you know why you feel so incomplete? It's because you're the White Guardian. Accept that and take the amulet back from the Doctor. Reclaim your true identity, and find out who you really are," the Master said.

"I'm not the White Guardian! I'm not some omnipotent being with unlimited power. I'm a human being, and that's who I want to be even with all of my flaws. I'm never going to let anyone or anything take that away from me. Got it? Even if it were true, I'd never help you anyway. So why do you care?" Christina said.

"Maybe because if it wasn't for me finding the amulet in the first place you'd never have found out who you really are. Once you do find that out, you'll owe me a favor. A very big favor and I intend to collect on that debt," the Master said.

"I'm never touching that amulet again anyway so you're never going to find out, are you?" Christina said.

"We'll see," the Master said ominously.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Christina asked in alarm.

The Master said nothing further though. He just continued to laugh.

Inside of Craig and Sophie's house, the Doctor was enjoying himself immensely while playing with Alfie. Sophie and Craig watched him with amusement as they wondered which of them was the bigger child, and Clara couldn't help wondering that herself.

"No, I can't give you a sonic yet, Stormy. You're not old enough to know how to use it properly yet. If I give you one of these, you'll have a device of unimaginable power that could potentially give you an unfair advantage over everyone else on this entire planet. You'll have to be much more mature than you are now before I'll even think of letting you have one. Maybe on your next birthday," the Doctor said grinning at the baby.

Alfie smiled and laughed in anticipation as the Doctor frowned and said, "Well that decides that then. Now I won't give you one period. You are not going to use it to take over the world's economy and force them all to do your bidding. Bad Stormy! Bad!"

Craig and Sophie laughed as Clara smiled in amusement. She couldn't help but picture their own child in Alfie's place. She already knew that he would be great with children just by watching him in action here or with Artie and Angie.

Of course Artie and Angie did take advantage of him a half a dozen times, but she'd have Christina around to make sure that the children didn't do anything too bad to him. She smiled at the thought of multiple children laughing and playing while they tied their dad to a pole in the backyard. She could hardly wait to see that someday.

The Doctor caught her smiling at him and began to smile back at her. He knew what she was thinking of, and he would love for it to come true. He couldn't help but wonder though. Could a human who was also a TARDIS even have children? He certainly hoped so. He never wanted to deny her anything. He already had plans to adopt if the worst happened and that was what she wanted. Hopefully though, the universe would give him a break for once.

If it was going to give him a break though, it wasn't going to happen any time soon.

Several Cybermen suddenly appeared in the middle of the room and began marching toward the Doctor. The Doctor quickly gave Alfie to Clara as he started to use his sonic screwdriver to start shutting down the Cybermen. There were too many of them for even him to destroy at once though, and one of them managed to slip through and grab him by the throat as it said, "Give us the amulet."

"Amulet? What amulet? I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Do I look like I'm into wearing fancy jewelry to you? You must have me confused with someone else. You probably think I'm one of these pop stars that you always hear about. I admit that I'm just as cool and handsome as they are, but I can't sing worth a lick," the Doctor said babbling as he tried to break free of the Cyberman's steel grip.

"No, he certainly can't. I've had to listen to a lot of his horrible screeching in the morning. It always sounds like he's killing about twenty or thirty cats all at once. I've often told him that he should try to use recordings of it as a weapon," Clara joked.

"Give us the amulet or we will kill everyone here," the Cyberman threatened as the other Cybermen moved forward to attack.

"I don't think so," Clara said as she handed Alfie to a terrified Sophie and began to glow with power.

The Cybermen instantly dissolved into atoms including the one threatening the Doctor. The Doctor smiled and fixed his tie as he said, "Why couldn't you have done that sooner?"

"I wanted to find out what they wanted," Clara said.

"What if he had broken my neck?" the Doctor said pouting.

"I just had to take that chance," Clara said smiling.

She turned to see Sophie staring at her in shock as Craig said, "I may have forgotten to mention that Clara is the TARDIS in human form."

"Yeah, I think you did," Sophie said.

Clara could see the way that Sophie looked at her. It was with fear. She was looking at her in the same way that she had the Cybermen.

"I'm still me though. I'm still Clara," Clara said upset.

"Of course you are, Clara. No one said that you weren't," the Doctor said gently.

"She's just as human as any of us," Craig said.

"I can see that. I'm sorry if I upset you. You just took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting you to do something like that," Sophie said apologetically at the sight of Clara with tears in her eyes.

Clara smiled and nodded. She supposed that she shouldn't have gotten so upset, but she couldn't help it. She didn't want people to be afraid of her or to treat her like she was some kind of alien. She was still human after all despite what had happened to her recently.

Wasn't she?

She didn't have time to answer that question though as the Cybermen appeared yet again, and one of them knocked her out from behind before she could even sense its presence. As Clara hit the ground, the Doctor screamed her name and started to attack the Cybermen with such speed that Sophie and Craig's eyes couldn't even follow him anymore. He was doing his best to destroy each and every one of them before they could reach the humans, but even he knew that it was only a matter of time before they won against him with their sheer overwhelming numbers.

"Go! Get to the TARDIS and take this to Christina," the Doctor said as he handed the amulet to Craig.

Craig, Sophie, and Alfie ran to the TARDIS as the Doctor did his best to hold the Cybermen back and keep them away from Clara. As soon as Craig opened the door to the TARDIS, Christina could see the terror on his face.

"The Doctor and Clara are under attack by the Cybermen. They want this," Craig said as he tried to hand the amulet to Christina.

"No! I don't want it!" Christina shouted backing away from it.

"I don't know what kind of power this has or what it will do to you. I don't want you to die, Christina. How do you know that it will kill you though? Maybe it won't. Maybe you would still be you no matter what. I have no way of knowing that. All I do know is that if you don't use this that the Cybermen will kill all of us to get it. I don't want anything to happen to my family, Christina. Please!" Craig pleaded with her.

The Master started to laugh, and Christina glared at him as she realized that he was behind this.

"You told them! You told them about the amulet somehow and where to find it, didn't you?" Christina accused him.

"I have a signal beacon broadcasting information about it and my exact coordinates at all times hidden in one of my pockets. It's broadcasting a signal throughout the universe telling everyone to come and get it. The Cybermen are just the first to respond. There will be more. Now the question is do you become the White Guardian and stop them or do you allow yourself and these other humans with you to die?" the Master said as he continued laughing.

Christina looked at Alfie with tears in her eyes and then at the amulet in Craig's hand as she hesitated for a split second and then she said, "Tell the Doctor and Clara that I love them."

She grabbed the amulet, and a white light surrounded her instantly. She was bombarded by its energies and quickly transformed into something beyond human. As soon as the glow faded, she instantly vanished.

The Master continued to laugh and made Craig instantly want to punch him. So he did.

Sophie put her arm around him and laid her head on his shoulder as the Master passed out cold, and Craig nursed a sprained hand.

"Ordinarily I wouldn't approve of violence, but in this case I'll make an exception. You're going to make a great role model for Alfie one day," Sophie said smiling.

"Do you think she'll be alright?" Craig asked.

"I hope so. She was so scared," Sophie said feeling sorry for this woman who she had only just met.

The Doctor had now been joined by both his and Craig's K-9s in fighting off the Cybermen, but it was doing little good in holding off the flood of Cybermen that continued to transmat into the house more and more by the moment. He knew that he would fall in just a matter of moments now.

Then suddenly one by one all of the Cybermen started to turn to dust right before the Doctor's shocked eyes. At first he thought that it must be Clara, but he could see that she was still unconscious. Then he realized who it must have been and hoped that Christina would be alright as he picked Clara up in his arms bridal style and carried her back to the TARDIS.

Somewhere up in space, the Cyber Ships that had been sending down more and more Cybermen by the minute were also incinerated save for one. The one remaining ship received a visitor dressed all in white robes who instantly destroyed all of the Cybermen who were sent against her.

Finally she reached the Cyber Planner controlling the ship and said, "Don't come back here again unless you want the Cybermen to become extinct. Spread the word."

"Abandon the amulet. The White Guardian is awake. Repeat. The White Guardian is awake," the Cyber Planner said as it began warning the rest of the Cyberiad about what had just happened.

"You'd better believe it," the White Guardian said as she sent the remaining Cyber Ship hurtling straight back to Telos with a wave of her hand.

She then teleported back down to Craig and Sophie's house and appeared in front of the TARDIS where a now conscious Clara and Doctor waited for her. Clara reached out to her as she asked, "Christina?"

"No, I'm afraid not. I'm sorry," the White Guardian said with a look of sympathy on her face.

"Are you the same White Guardian that I met before?" the Doctor asked as Clara tried very hard not to become upset.

"Yes, Doctor, I am. Or at least what's left of me anyway. No, don't get upset, Clara. Christina's not dead. I didn't mean to infer that she was," the White Guardian said as she put a comforting hand on Clara's shoulder.

"What's going on then? How did you get inside of her and why are you there for in the first place?" the Doctor asked as Clara began to smile again in relief.

"I don't have time to answer your questions, Doctor. I have to hide myself again so that I can't be found," the White Guardian said.

"Who is trying to find you? Who do you have to be afraid of anyway? You're a Guardian of Time. You lot are pretty much omnipotent and can do whatever you want. What could scare you?" the Doctor asked.

The White Guardian said nothing and only stood there looking worried.

"If you want to stay hidden, you're going to need our help. We can't help you if we don't know all of the facts," Clara said imploring her to speak.

"I'm trying to stay hidden from the Black Guardian. He almost killed me once before, and I barely managed to escape. If he catches me again, he'll finish me for good this time. He's already destroyed my body so I had to hide what was left of myself in the body of a newborn child while I hid my power within the amulet that the Master found. I then sent the amulet as far away from me as possible in time and space. Apparently it must have wound up in the care of Ancient Egypt's royal family," the White Guardian said.

"So was Christina ever real or was she you the whole time?" Clara asked confused.

"She's very much like you actually, Clara. She's an actual person who grew up with me hidden deep inside of her and never even knew it. I couldn't have picked a better person to hide inside. She's the exact opposite of who I am and yet in a way she's also a kindred spirit. She's a good and noble person despite her flaws, and that's why I chose her to hide inside of her. My very presence as the Guardian of Light and Order would have destroyed her if she hadn't been worthy to receive it after all. Now I have to return to my dormant state and let Christina regain control. I only hope that I haven't been found by him already," the White Guardian said nervously.

"Hold on a minute. I thought that you Guardians had rules preventing you from interfering with the universe much less trying to kill each other. You always do everything through pawns instead of directly. The only time you can use your powers outside of giving them to pawns is in self-defense. How did the Black Guardian try to kill you without the other Guardians turning on him and stopping him for breaking the rules?" the Doctor asked suspiciously.

"That's because the rules were suddenly changed. The Black Guardian finally managed to find and put the scattered pieces of the Key to Time together through his agents, and they used its unlimited control over time and space to destroy the other Guardians. Luckily I managed to take the Key away from them and hide it where he could never find it. Before I could hide myself though, he attacked me and almost destroyed me. That's why I must stay hidden, Doctor. He must never find me or the Key or all of reality will be at his mercy," The White Guardian explained.

"Why isn't it already if he's been running around unchecked all of this time?" the Doctor asked.

"That's because I used the Key to steal his powers. That's the only way that I was able to escape from him. He dealt my body a mortal wound though, and that's why I hid the Key and myself just before it died. He's still a deadly enemy, but he's a completely powerless one. Now he needs to find me and the Key before he can regain his power with it. I'm sure that he has a way of still finding me and that he's still out there somewhere searching. He must never find me, Doctor, even if I have to stay hidden inside of Christina for the rest of her life. Now stand back. I'm going to return to a sleeping state and then return most of my power to the amulet. I will leave a small bit of it with Christina this time though I think. She may need it in the future for defense. Goodbye, Doctor. Guard the amulet and Christina with your life or all is lost. If the Black Guardian were ever to become the last Guardian with the Key to Time in his hands, then no one in this universe would be safe from him. Darkness and chaos would reign forever," the White Guardian said.

The Doctor shuddered at the thought of it because he knew that it was true.

The White Guardian glowed with light and then was gone as Christina returned back in her normal black outfit again and holding the amulet. She looked at it in terror as she looked up at the Doctor and Clara in tears.

"Christina? It is you this time, isn't it?" Clara asked.

"Yeah, at least I think so. Who's to say who I really am now? Was I ever real at all or just a shell for the White Guardian to hide in?" Christina said in a shaky voice.

"So you remember everything?" the Doctor asked.

Christina nodded as she stared at the amulet with a sad look on her face. She looked so upset that Clara instantly embraced her as she said, "I know exactly how you feel. That's the way that I feel every day. I'm still not sure if I'm real or if I was just a pawn of the TARDIS all along that just thinks that she's real."

"Of course you're real! You're my Impossible Girl, and don't you ever forget it! As for you, Christina, you're real too. I know you are. You're too alive not to be," the Doctor said.

Christina looked up at him with pure gratitude in her eyes, and then she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. The Doctor looked at Clara apologetically as Christina rested her head on his shoulder and said, "Thank you, Doctor. Thank you."

"Christina, I hate to say it, but you're coming dangerously close to making me jealous," Clara said joking.

"Shut up, Clara. That kiss was purely platonic. I can give a platonic kiss you know. I'm sorry if I never showed you enough sympathy before for what you're going through. Now that I've discovered that I'm in the same boat that you are I've never been so terrified in my life," Christina said.

The Doctor could feel her start shaking with emotion even as she held onto him, and he now willingly returned her embrace as he tried his best to comfort her. He had grown to be very close to Christina and didn't like seeing the usually strong woman reduced to such a state.

"It's going to be alright. Clara and I will keep you safe, Christina. I promise. Not only that but we'll find some way to free you from the White Guardian eventually. Someday I'll make sure that you get your life back," the Doctor said as he kissed her forehead.

"Was it ever really my life in the first place though? Or am I just a phony and always have been?" Christina said in tears.

"I ask myself that every day," Clara admitted.

"What answer do you come up with then?" Christina asked.

"That I am real. I have to be because my love for the Doctor and my friendship with you makes me real. It has to," Clara said.

Christina smiled at her and now let go of the Doctor and embraced her. The Doctor quietly took the amulet from Christina as Clara did her best to calm her down. Then he put it back in his pocket. He would find a much better place to hide it later.

He had to make sure that the Black Guardian wherever he was would never get his hands on it. He could only hope that the Black Guardian hadn't been able to track the White Guardian down or they would all be in a world of trouble.

"Is it all over with, Doctor?" Craig asked as he, Sophie, and Alfie finally left the TARDIS.

"Yes, it should be. I hope that's finally the end of it anyway. I'm so sorry. I never meant to bring any trouble to you . . . again. Maybe I should just stay away from you from now on. It seems that all I do is ruin the lives of everyone that I come across," the Doctor said as he looked sadly at Clara and Christina.

That was when Sophie walked up to him and kissed his cheek as she said, "You're welcome back here any time, Doctor. You're a good man despite what you might think. None of this was your fault. In fact, it just shows me why the universe needs you."

"Hear, hear," Clara said as she nodded her approval.

The Doctor smiled as he could see that neither Clara nor Christina looked at him with any anger or resentment in their eyes. He quickly pulled out a pouch of money from one of his pockets that he handed to Craig as he said, "Here. This should pay for any damages to your house. I hope it's enough. I don't know much about money."

Craig looked in the bag in shock to see that it was filled with what looked like hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Doctor had done this same thing before when he had given him way too much for renting an apartment from him.

Clara laughed at the look on Craig and Sophie's faces as she said, "Just keep it. He doesn't need it. I can provide him with everything that he needs. I mean the TARDIS can."

"You were right the first time. You can provide me with all of the important things that the TARDIS never could," the Doctor said as he kissed her.

"Goodbye, Doctor. I hope the next time that you come that we just have a simple ordinary day together," Craig said.

Then all of them burst out laughing.

"That was a good one, Craig," Clara said as she waved goodbye to them.

The Doctor, Clara, and Christina left and walked back to the TARDIS as Craig and his family walked back into what was left of their house with their new K-9.

"Don't worry, Master. I will assist you in making repairs to your home. I'm sure that I can prove quite useful," K-9 said.

"I think I'll just pay someone to do it for me instead," Craig said.

"Negative. I can do it just as efficiently if not better than a human can. Let me do it, Master," K-9 argued.

"Uh, Doctor," Craig said as he tried to get someone to argue on his behalf to the robot dog.

He was already too late though. The TARDIS was already dematerializing.

"It's settled then. I shall make the repairs," K-9 said stubbornly.

That was when Clara materialized out of nowhere and hit a switch on K-9's back. The robot immediately switched off.

"That's the on/off switch. I have a feeling it'll come in handy from time to time. Goodbye, Craig," Clara said with a huge grin before she dematerialized again.

Back on the TARDIS, Clara found the Doctor and Christina staring at the Master in indecision. Apparently they were trying to decide what to do with him.

Clara decided to add her two cents in as she said, "I say we chuck him out into the Vortex."

"You don't really mean that," the Doctor said.

"Part of me does. The part that was there when he made me I mean her into a Paradox Machine," Clara said in anger.

"Go right ahead and throw me out if you want. I'm not afraid. I'll just come back. Nothing can destroy me. I'll always find a way to survive. I'll always survive out of pure hate and return to destroy you instead, Doctor. Now I have added reason to return. I know who your Earth girl really is now, and someday I'll use her to gain ultimate power. Then no one will stop me," the Master said as he laughed.

"You want me to help you?" Christina asked as a sinister smile began to appear on her face.

"Christina, what are you thinking? Whatever it is, don't do it," the Doctor said.

Christina ignored him as she said, "Okay, I'll help you then."

The Master looked at her eagerly as he waited for her to use her new powers on his behalf somehow. Instead of that though he suddenly received a swift kick in a very sensitive part of his anatomy.

"Do you need any more of my help?" Christina asked.

The Master was in too much pain to reply. He swiftly passed out instead.

"I didn't think so," Christina said with a grin.

"You're definitely a real person," the Doctor said as he shook his head at her.

"Yeah and now the Master knows how real she is too. He just found out the hard way," Clara said laughing.

"At least maybe he won't be bothering me for help anymore anyway. What will we do with him though?" Christina asked.

"Well, I'm not sure that I can trust anyone else to be able to hold onto him so, uh . . . I think that I might have to maybe . . ." the Doctor said nervously as he tried not to look at Clara.

"Oh, no! He's not staying here!" Clara shouted.

"Who else is going to be able to keep him from escaping? I'm the only one who knows how to handle him," the Doctor protested.

"Christina, keep your foot ready. I may need it," Clara said.

The Doctor backed away from a madly grinning Christina as he said, "Well, what else can I do with him?"

"Don't worry. I'll come up with something. He's definitely not staying here though," Clara said firmly.

Then she looked at Christina and saw that her smile had already faded. She sighed. She thought that her sudden recovery had been a bit too quick. She had only been happy for a little while because she had gotten her revenge on the Master, but it hadn't lasted for long unfortunately.

She looked at the Doctor, and he smiled hopefully at her. She knew that he was hopeful that Christina would eventually be alright.

She wasn't so sure though. The Doctor didn't know what it meant to doubt your whole life and she did. She was the only one who could possibly understand what Christina was really going through at that moment.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. You'll always have me here to talk to if you need it," Clara offered.

"Thanks. The same goes for you. It's funny. Now we're each other's support system, huh?" Christina said as she tried unsuccessfully to laugh.

The Doctor looked at both of them unhappily. Things had been going so well earlier, and now it seemed like everything had fallen apart. Both Clara and Christina were miserable, and he was saddled with both the Master and the hidden essence of the White Guardian. He had absolutely no idea what to do about any of it either.

He just hoped that things didn't get any worse.

Unfortunately for him they were just about to do exactly that. The Black Guardian stuck in his now powerless body stared at the small gadget based on Guardian technology that he had been using to try to track down the White Guardian's power and smiled at the results that it now gave him.

He had registered a brief trace of the other Guardian's power and had managed to rapidly track it down just in time to see the TARDIS disappearing. Now that he knew that the White Guardian was traveling with the Doctor, he could use his agents, who still had considerable power of their own even without his help, to track him down throughout all of time and space. Sooner or later, one of them would find him, and then ultimate power would be his at last.

**Next: The Doctor and Clara receive a call for help from Clara's echoes in Renaissance Italy, the Lady Clara, even as they deal with the aftermath of this adventure. What threat does Clara's echo face? Also what will the Doctor and Clara decide to do with the Master? Plus it seems that two people who are very familiar to the Doctor have been trying to find him because they have something that they want to show him. Who could it possibly be, and what is it that they want? Let's just say that it's going to be a pleasant surprise for once. At least until a certain unwanted guest shows up anyway. **


End file.
